Indeed very sad. However, in any large organisation, there are bound to be a few bad apples, no matter how hard we try to keep them out. Of course every other type of organisation also suffers the same sad situation from time to time - charities, churches, businesses, and so on, all occasionally suffer the depradations of thieves and con-men. Here in UGLE, we've had a few similar cases over the centuries, where a Treasurer has turned out to be a crook.
There was one instance a few years ago in a UGLE Lodge which was especially painful to me - I was Master at the time when I discovered that our Treasurer had stolen our funds. He'd taken every penny, and of course we had bills to pay like anyone else, so we were immediately in serious financial trouble, with unpaid creditors threatening to sue the Lodge for their money. Luckily we had a couple of well-off members who agreed to pay the more urgent bills as a loan to the Lodge, but it was very awkward for a few months. After much trouble, the crooked Treasurer eventually gave us back our money when (with UGLE backing) we started proceedings against him in a civil court. In the meanwhile he had been arrested by the police and had confessed, but he avoided a prison sentence because the public prosecutors decided after he gave the money back not to bother pursuing the criminal case further, although we (and the police also) thought the prosecutors were shockingly lenient to let him off.
Obviously this mess ruined my year in the Chair, but at least I had the satisfaction of recovering our funds by the time I handed over to my successor. And of course we had uncovered a bad apple and got rid of him from the Craft, so in a sense that was a gain too, but obviously I'd rather not have had it happen in such a fashion.
T & F,
Huw