An unassuming bank manager who went missing in North Queensland is alleged to have made “full and frank admissions” to police about a missing $3 million from the community bank in which he worked.

Colin Carelton. Picture: Courier Mail.

The disappearance and subsequent arrest of bank manager Colin Carleton is a kind of crime story more fascinating than a heist pulled off by a gang of hardened criminals. The Courier Mail reports that Carelton is widely described as “quiet, down-to-earth, family man”.

Carleton’s alleged theft only came to light in the last few months, and is thought have taken place over a decade. He was due to meet with private investigators looking at financial irregularities at his Bendigo Community Bank when he disappeared on July 13, last seen going for a trail bike ride in the Herberton Ranges.

This type of allegation against people like Carleton’s are more shocking because they involve the type of people we know.  Psychologically we can turn criminal gangs into the kinds of creatures we can’t empathise with, but Carelton is not only one of our community but someone in a position of implicit trust. Which leads to the awkward question: what would we be capable of if left in a similar position?

It has all the elements of suburban existential thriller. The allegations are the kind of story the Cohen brothers have frequently explored in films like The Man Who Wasn’t There and Fargo: normal people who lose complete control of their lives and start committing crimes from which there is no point of return.

Or is a potentially criminal personality type always necessary (as in Matt Damon’s The Informant) with a person merely needing the necessary position of power and access to explore their criminal potential?

Either way script writers from around the world must already be pitching this one.

In other news a NSW teenager was shot dead on the weekend after he was mistaken for a deer during a hunting trip. The 19-year-old from Thurgoona was shot and killed by a single shot from a rifle while hunting with two friends at a deserted property near Tallangatta in northern Victoria, the Herald Sun reported.

American celebrity news website TMZ are reporting that police are now investigating the possibility that actor Brittany Murphy and her script writer husband could have been killed by mould in their house. Murphy and her husband Simon Monjack died several months apart, reportedly pneumonia was the cause of death for both of them. Mould is often linked with respiratory illness and police are investigating the possibility that mould in the couple’s LA house was responsible for the deaths.

Snooker legend Alex “Hurricane” Higgins is reported to have starved himself to death, a friend told Britain’s Daily Mirror in an interview. Higgins had reportedly refused to eat in the last moths of his life after being forced to survive on pureed food and Guiness after cancer treatment.

In more upbeat news Britain’s oldest newly married couple have tied the knot, the Daily Mail reports. Henry Kerr, 97, and his bride Valerie Berkowitz, 87, were married on the weekend in the aged care home where they live. Henry reportedly asked Valerie over a cup of tea, but was not given an answer immediately saying she would need more time to think about it.

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8 comments

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    • Bob H says:

      03:52pm | 26/07/10

      RIP Alex Higgins, hearing that he refused the pureed food made sense as it would leave room for more Guinness.

    • Sheedys' Left Foot says:

      04:11pm | 26/07/10

      RIP Hurricane Higgins. A man from an era where the occasional headbutt, dope test refusal, drinking 10 pints per game and smoking more B&H than humanly possible was not a barrier to becoming a world champion….it probably helped.

      A genius or psycho depending on your perspective or the time of day you met him.

    • Steve Davis says:

      05:06pm | 26/07/10

      RIP Hurricane. 
      Luckily he found a talent for something that was only a step from the bar which held most of his affections.

    • DD Ball says:

      05:49pm | 26/07/10

      I used to work for a bank, and I am aware that they try to do much to avoid letting individuals dig themselves into that hole. Tellers may handle tens of thousands of dollars a day, but they account for it all and if they can’t there is an investigation .. maybe no one leaves the branch until the money is found. Managers do not work alone, they are overseen and accountable. This crime happened in a distant branch, but it clearly indicates a failure of due diligence by management too.

    • DD Ball says:

      05:50pm | 26/07/10

      I am dumping my flatmate. He likes mouldy things to form on the shower curtains. I had them for eight years without problem, but nine months with this creature and the mould is forming on the curtains and shower recess.

    • Julie Coker-Godson says:

      06:15pm | 26/07/10

      RIP Alex “Hurricane” Higgins.  Trying to eat whilst dealing with cancer is almost impossible.  My late father starved to death because of this.  The treatment a patient receives is enough to put them off food for life, believe me.  I remember, with fondness, the games with Steve Davis and enjoyed watching Alex play.  What a sad day!

    • Boring quiet guy. says:

      05:30pm | 27/07/10

      I expect it would be perfectly normal for any reasonably intelligent person who handles millions of dollars per year to think about how easy or hard it would be to steal some.  And if he happens to think of an idea that would probably work, surely the temptation would slowly build over time.  Start with, “ha ha, yes, someone would probably get away with that”.  A year later it’s “hmm, I could probably get away with that”.  Three years later it’s “yeah, if I had done that and that, I’d have X amount by now…”  Thought becomes hypothetical plans which become detailed hypothetical plans, which turn into maneuvering to set up the right background conditions.  One day you wake up and realise that you have complete, well thought out plans and everything is in place ready to go.  No, I don’t find it scary or worrying to think that a normal, quiet person would succumb to constant temptation over several years.  It’s a reminder that everyone’s human no matter how highly we think of them.

    • Peasant #3167 says:

      09:12pm | 27/07/10

      The bank tells the media he stole customers money. But in reality he stole the banks money. The banks have been stealing money from people for centuries so good luck to him. I hate banks.

 

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