AMAZING FRAUD STORY.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18366, 27 April 1925, Page 9

AMAZING FRAUD STORY.

TWO MEN'S DECEPTIONS. A career of deception," which enabled two men to travel about the country in expensive motor-cars with a chauffeur in livery, was unfolded at-the Old Bailoy, London, last month. James Etehells, described as a civil engineer of exceptional ability, was sentenced to three years', penal servitude for obtaining money by false pretences in connexion with the underwriting of capital. His accomplice, William Read, builder, who was said to have come under Etchell's influence, was sentenced ■ to nine months' imprisonment.

Relating his past career, a detective said Etehells had posed at Manchester as the founder of an. organisation called -the National Economy Industry, and the siftry he- tolcl then to prospective clients was that lie had floated a. company with a capital of £5,000,000, and thai; lie had the backing of chiefs in the Natry and Army. . The objects of this concern included the abolition of charities, sweated labour, and. profiteering and the introduction of a system whereby the worker . should have a share of the profits. • The abolition of insanitary working conditions was another aim. A feature of the scheme was the fair treatment of Servico and ex-Sorvico men and women. Etehells was secretary and manager, and in order to keep up some semblance of genuineness he wrote letters to himself from one address in another uarnet, and. lie sent telegrams in that way. For this fraud and bigamy he was sentenced at Manchester to three years' penal servitude in 1920.

Since his release from prison in 1 v : 2"J on license Etehells hud lived by lraud, it was stated. He ;/nd Read stayed at the best hotels. Their method was to watch the newspapers for advertisements seeking c-apital- They got in touch' with advertisers, and niado. a point of seeking ex-Service men who wished to form , companies. They obtained commissions from these people., but never provided capita). Both ir.'. ,; < lived in good style in London suburbs, and ke'it servants.

It was stated Chat Read's wife, a hard-working woman, had licen reduced to poverty through her husband's neglect, and she had often to borrow money from the servant to provide food for her children. After Read married, his received some house' property under her father s will: but Kead forced her t;> mortgage this to moneylenders on his behalf, and she is now destitute and relying solely cn the kindness of friends. Both men are said to have spent the money which they olrtained from fraudulent means iii riotous living in the West-End.