F. D. BROWN'S BANKRUPTCY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1770, 7 June 1913, Page 5

F. D. BROWN'S BANKRUPTCY.

SEVERE CENSURE BY THE COURT. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Reo. June G, 8.30 p.m.) Sydney, June' 6, Mr. Justice Street, in allowing tho appeal of the Singer Sewing Machine Company against tho decision of tho Registrar in Bankruptcy in granting Frank Denison Brown, late manager of the company, a certificate of discharge, with a nominal suspension of one day, strongly commented upon Brown's business oonduct. He concluded that Brown had not only shown himself wanting in commercial morality, but had proved so entirely devoid of the rudimentary elements of common honesty as put it altogether out of the question that he should be allowed to trade on his own account.

In April of last year Brown and the accountant of the Singer Company (John Macpherson) were charged with conspiring to defraud the company of ■£12,74-4. The evidence showed that Brown was receiving a salary of .£4OOO, and that his account was largely overdrawn. The acousod were discharged, but Macpherson was sent to gaol for a year on a charge of stealing ,£5497 from tho company. In March last the Registrar in Bankruptcy granted Brown a certificate of discharge, dismissing the objector's protests, and declaring that thoro had been no fraudulent breach of trust. It is the appeal of tho company against this decision that has now bean allowed.