(Even) More from the London County Council Housing of the Working Classes Committee. . .

2 November, 1910, S Burgess, housing manager on the Boundary Street Estate, writes to the Committee:

“I regret to report that Mr Gentry, one of the collectors attached to this department, was last week found to be practising irregularities in connection with the collection of the pence from the automatic gas meters on the Boundary Street Estate, into which the Comptroller and myself are making further investigations. In the meantime, Mr Gentry has been suspended.

“Mr Gentry has been in the Council’s service for just 10 years. He has always been a very able collector and there has never been any irregularity as regards his rent collection. Mr Gentry feels his present position very acutely, and we are inclined to believe that he was tempted to appropriate the money in the way described owing to domestic trouble, his wife and children having for some time been very ill, involving him in considerable expense.

“Mr Gentry pleads that he may be retained in the Council’s service, and if the Committee are disposed to leniently consider the case, the housing manager could, by a slight rearrangement of duties, find suitable work for Mr Gentry at a reduced rate of pay that will not involve the receipt of money.”

16 November 1910
G L Gomme, clerk of the Council, replies to Mr Burgess:

“The honesty of the Council as trustee for the return on the money to its tenants has been betrayed, and I cannot but take the most serious view of the case. I gather the man’s temptation arose from domestic troubles, but whatever its cause, I am unable to advise any other course than dismissal.”