"John Croaker was born in humble but respectable circumstances in Canterbury, Kent, and became principal clerk at the Isle of Thanet Bank in Margate. This might have been the sum total of his life's achievements if he hadn't begun fiddling the bank's accounts. After absconding to Calais in 1815 with stolen assets, he was convicted of embezzling the proceeds of a bill of exchange, and transported to New South Wales for fourteen years." "Croaker's career generates a succession of interesting issues. His involvements in banking, brewing and the law have allowed John Booker and Russell Craig to use him as a window on the economic, judicial and social conditions of his age, both in England and in New South Wales."--BOOK JACKET
