FRAUD ALLEGED.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 230, 28 September 1929, Page 9

FRAUD ALLEGED.

HATRY IN COURT. "Stooped So Low As To Issue Spurious Scrip." LIABLE TO FOURTEEN YEARS. (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) (Received 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, September 27. Clarence Hatry and his three associates, Edmund Daniels, John G. Dixon and A. E. Tabor, were brought before the Court to-day and remanded till October 4. Sir George Prescott was on the Bench. Defendants sat in front or the dock, which was not used. Mrs. Hatry was not present. A friend said she was resting in the country. Hatry looked composed—almost cheerful. Defendants chatted in animated fashion with their counsel. The whole proceedings resembled an informal company meeting rather than the drama to which they formed the prelude. Mr. H. Koome, representing the . Public Prosecuto: , , said that six months after the Wakefield loan was issued defendants committed a shocking fraud. On July 15 Edmund Daniels ordered Blades, East and Blades, who had printed the Wakefield Loan scrip certificate, to print a further 80 Wakefield certificates for £")000 each and to deliver them to John G. Dixon. not to M". Pi r "- chief clerk of the issue department of Corporation and Gcaci. who had ordered the previous printing for the Wakefield Loan. Defendants desired -to conceal what they were doing from Mr. Page. Thu* a certificate, amounting to £400,000, was fabricated. Defendants were hard pressed for ready money. These four gentlemen, directors of an issuing house of the City of London, stooped so low as to issue a worthless scrip. Mr. Russell was completely deceived. The printers had no reason of knowing that those supplementary issues were in any way spurious. Accordingly when they were printed they delivered them to Mr. Page, whom Mr. Dixon had told that they would be exchanged for the original scrip, which would be cancelled. As the exchange was not made Mr. Page asked Daniels if he realised that they had issued more scrip than the amount of the loans. Daniels said: "Technically we have. lam seeing to it." Mr. Pvoome continued that these spurious issues would be the subject of further charges. "There are men being ruined owing to the action of these defendants, whose uttering of spurious securities renders them liable to fourteen years' penal servitude." The hearing was adjourned. The "Daily Telegraph" says it learns that plain speaking was heard at a meeting of bankers at which it is understood the governor of the Bank of England, Mr. Montagu C. Norman, laid the onus of the Hatry companies' collapse upon banking and money circles. Mr. Norman is said to have intimated that the financial authorities would need to realise their responsibilities. He reminded the bankers of the well-known views held by many members of the Labour Government in regard to the nationalisation of banks.