The Aldgate Ledger

Defendant

Edmund Crale, senior accounts clerk at Harwick & Sons Shipping

Between January and March 1923, approximately £740 vanished from the Harwick & Sons client escrow ledger. The prosecution claims Edmund Crale, who held sole posting authority during that period, systematically redirected small sums into a fictitious vendor account he controlled. Crale insists the discrepancies were inherited errors from the previous clerk, a man who died of influenza in December 1922, and that he discovered — rather than created — them. The jury must decide whether Crale embezzled the funds or whether the evidence clears him of deliberate wrongdoing.

The rules

1. Four witnesses will give a statement. Each has their own angle.
2. Six exhibits sit on the table. Some corroborate, some don’t.
3. Render a ruling — guilty or not guilty — and name the witness whose word, taken with the evidence, settles it.
4. One submission. You can’t change your ruling.