FORTUNE GONE.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18904, 20 January 1927, Page 9

FORTUNE GONE.

—-—♦ —■ NEW ZEALANDER DUPED. "A GAMBLE IN FRANCS. 1 ' (Bf CABLS I-BESS ASSOCIATION— COPTSIGHT.) (AUSTRALIAN AND H.z CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON) January 13. Frauds Barclay, otherwise Brearley, charged with conspiracy to rob a New '' ■tlande'r, James Hector McKay, was discharged, the Crown Prosecutor not offering evidence. The Prosecutor announced that James Mason, concerned in the alleged conspir;- ~', was pleading guilty to stealing two of McKay's bank notea, valued at £IOO and £so'respectively. There •eio strong reasons for proceeding with these two charges only, though they represented a small -roportion of the Wg fraud. Mason, posing as Monroe, a wealthy Queenslander, met McKay on board ship en route from New Zealand to San I'ram cisco in May, 1926. Barclay was also on tho ship, and the three soon established a close friendship. The seed was carefully sown for six months. They parted at Los Angeles, but forgathered in London, Then, after a trip to the Riviera, Mason one (lay in November accompanied McKay to Cornhill, where he pointed put a man whom the Prosecutor regretted was not in custody. He would call him '<Mr A." "A" was aetualjy a coconspirator in the fraud. Mason introduced McKay, saying that "A" had .-just made £250,000 on the Btpek Exchange, '-'A." invited Mason and McKay to"join him in a speculation in franes.

"It seems ridiculous nonsense, showing that the gullibility of human nature is infinite, " said the Prosecutor, but then and there McKay and Mason signed documents instructing the "In'ternationa Exchange" to invest £15,000 a-piece. Fifteen minutes later "A" reported that they 'iad won £33,000, but could not obtai the money until all three had shewn ability to' bear an equivalent Iqss, McK- y thereupon drew £15,000 from th. bank! "A" produced what appeared to be £7OOO in notes, and Ma'spn similarly £7OOO, which Mason took to the manager of the mythical exchange. When Mason returned he said that he had put the whole of the profits, including McKay's security of £15,000, into, a new gamble. Naturally this was the end the matter. MeEay was furious at Mason's unauthorised action. Mason and "A" promised ito put things right, and dis? appeared, ''A," by means of telegrams, fleepyed McKay to Paris, then to Milan, and tried to entice him to Alexandria, but McKay was ill and gave up the pursuit. He returned to London an(j informed the police. The notes specified had been cashed. Mason from the dock said: "The temptation was top great for me.'' The Prosecutor paid Mason had a bad record. He was a well-known confide ence trickster.

The magistrate, in sentencing him tq a year's nard labour, said that the ilmUation of the charge may have been d e to Mason's youth, or'perhaps it had been assumed that he was aeting as the agent for a more experienced criminal;