Subsidy On Eggs That Were Never Laid

Chronicle (Levin), 10 September 1948, Page 3

Subsidy On Eggs That Were Never Laid

j,| J T -V. *V/'SiMARU; Se^t: 9. i tictitious Uttines bf-: pfbdudefs- w^efB. :uscd .for tbe purpose of obtaining ilie Government Bubsidy of 4d a dozen on eggs, wbich in effect were also fictitious, were made by Mr. W. D. Campbell for tlie prosecutiou when Thomas Ewart Gill, aged 55, proprietor of the Timaru central egg floor, and Reginald Tong, aged 44, accountant, of Christchurch, appeared before Mr. E. A. Lee S.M. in the Timaru Magistrate's Court charged with, b.etween December 1946 and June 1948, conspiring with each other by deceit to defraud the Government out of £1861 3s 4d. Outlining the case for the prosecutiou, which he admitted was somewhat involved, Mr. Campbell explained the working of the egg floor to which producers -brought eggs. A fixed price was paid for them hnd they were distributed again at a fixed price, the proprietor of the egg ■ floor receiving a commission of 7-J per eent. For some months past the Government had subsidised the purchase price of .eggs by 4d a dozen. Gill settled monthly with his eustomers, paying the subsidy which he reclaimed from the Government in due course. It .was alleged, continued Mr. Campbell, that the aecused had put in claims for subsidies on eggs which had . never been brought to the egg floor and sold. Bogus documents had been prepared to cover up such illicit transactions. "We say that bogus eustomers were represented as having supplied eggs," said Mr. Campbell. "Several were names of Gill's relatives. When he ran out of family names he resorted to the colour scheme and used sueh names as Brown, Green, Black and* White and when these ran out he used common names like Smith and Jones." It was alleged that all the bogus transactions resulted in subsidies being paid on about 112,000 dozen eggs that never existed and the subsidy' amounted to £1861 3s 4d. "The essenee of the charge is that tlie aceused • worked a seheme by whicli they represented to the Marketing Department that they handled eggs and reOeived the 'subsidy whereas the eggs in fact never existed," said Mr. Campbell. > • i The hearing of evidence was begun and will be continued tomoTrqw»