CRIMINAL APPEAL COURT.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 521, 31 May 1909, Page 5

CRIMINAL APPEAL COURT.

SENTENCE QUASHED. > (BT TKMKm.U'II— I'UCS.I «SSIICIMIUN—COHttIOHI4 (Rec. May 30, 4.45 p.m.) London, May 29. Tho Court of Criminal Appeal (established in 1907) quashed tho conviction of Joseph Stoddart, charged with coupon frauds, on the ground that tho Judgo misdirected tho jury. A REMARKABLE CASE. Joseph Stoddart, of.Fleet Street, 1 and Frederick Catling, his son-in-law,- came up In October last on charges of conspiracy to defraud. It was alleged that,; after announcing', in their, publications various racing and football competitions, the defendants defrauded the actual winners of tho prizes by publishing tho names 'cf bogus to whom a considerable part of tho proceeds of tho competitions waß allotted. ; They were both committed for trial,-and after their caso had been' before the Contral Criminal Court for 'tiventy-threq days, tho Recorder summed up, and the jury; after more than two hours' deliberation, found Stoddart guilty both of obtaining money by false pretences and of conspiracy. Stoddart was. sentenced to eighteen months'- hard labour and "rdcred to pay tho costs of tho: prosecution. Catling wr.s acquitted. In one case, the prosecution alleged that accused advertised that was to. bo distributed ' bct\vccn winners . of a competition in connection with ■ a horse race. There 'were two genuine winners, and accused published a third, a fictitious person. Thus the two genuino winners wero defrauded, it was alleged, of JilOO. .