against a woman accused of pilfering more than $36,000 over three years from her Horizons Limited employers.

Puisne Judge the Hon. Mr. Justice Meerabux yesterday ruled the Supreme Court jury should disregard three of the 14 counts against Joanne Elizabeth Fubler, 33 employed as an accounts clerk with the company between 1985 and 1992.

He told the jurors they would be formally advised to find Fubler not guilty on the three charges when they announce their verdict.

The decision came following two days of sequestered legal wrangling between prosecution and defence lawyers.

But before making the pronouncement, Mr. Justice Meerabux admonished The Royal Gazette for printing the substance of a motion brought by defence lawyer Mr.

Julian Hall in the absence of the jury.

The Press is barred from reporting such deliberations.

"The Press must report in accordance with the law,'' said Mr. Justice Meerabux. "Freedom of speech is governed by law. Government has set out the parametres and I hope the Press will act in accordance with the law.'' Earlier he instructed the jury to completely disregard the report.

"Disregard any newspaper publications. Completely erase it from your minds, from your subconsciousness,'' he said.

However, for jurors at the three and a half week trial that has, at times been bogged down in minutiae and marked by a surfeit of documentary evidence, the end is now in sight.

Prosecution and defence sides yesterday began summing up their evidence at the close of the prosecution's case.

Mr. Hall rested his case for the defence, opting not to put the accused on the stand or call any witnesses.

In a final speech to the jury, Crown Counsel Mr. Peter DeJulio told jurors that a "trail of paper'' and circumstantial evidence pointed to Fubler, an accounts clerk and courier employed by the company to collect locked deposit bags from the four hotels and deliver them to the bank. It is charged she took cash from the bags, destroyed deposit slips made out by the hotels' cashiers and rewrote amended slips to hide the thefts before depositing the money.

Mr. DeJulio admitted there was no direct evidence to prove Fubler had a key to the bags or destroyed the slips.

But deposit slips found in her car and desk combined with Fubler's unique responsibility for depositing the money and keeping a cash receipts book detailing deposits taken from bank statements, meant she was guilty.

"There is no direct evidence but when we put the pieces together this is what must have happened,'' he said. "But this is how most fraud cases are proven -- through paper.'' He added that Fubler's refusal to help track the missing funds when asked by her boss Mr. Robert Oliver, also pointed to her guilt.

And he said jurors should not be sidetracked by a plethora of side issues introduced by the defence.

Preempting an attack by Mr. Hall on the company's organisation, deemed "Mickey Mouse'' by a former employee, Mr. DeJulio admitted the bookkeeping methods were sloppy.

But he said Horizons Limited was a "family organisation that operated on trust''.

At the opening of his summing up speech, Mr. Hall warned jurors, that, like the trial itself, it was likely to be lengthy.

"This case must have been as exciting to you as lying back and watching the paint dry,'' he joked.

But he quickly turned back to the seriousness of the matter.

He accused the prosecution of having "yawning gaps'' in its case.

And he said an excessive number of charges had been brought against the accused which could not be proved.

"The prosecution's principle is if you throw enough mud, some of it will stick,'' he said.

Mr. Hall said it was strange that inconsistencies between amounts of deposit slips returned by the bank and the original slips made out by the hotel cashiers were never caught.

"Not a single alarm bell was raised by anyone until early 1992. There is something rotten in the state of Horizons,'' Mr. Hall said.

He also said that more than 12 people had access to the cash in the hotels before it was collected for deposit by Fubler.

"Umpteen'' people had combinations to the safes and deposit bag keys, not to mention the unknown number of bank employees who handled the money at the bank.

Fubler, Mr. Hall said, was targeted almost immediately as the prime suspect for the missing money.

"No one else had their bank account, desk and car searched. No one else was the subject of this search.'' He continues his summing up speech today.