A DISHONEST MAGISTRATE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3113, 18 June 1917, Page 4

A DISHONEST MAGISTRATE

HEAVILY PINED FOR FALSE ■ INCOME TAX RETURNS. John Williams, managing director oS the Clayton Tinplate Works and a magistrate for Glamorgan, and Swansea, was at Glamorgan Assizes at Cardiff recently lined .£4OOO and ordered to pay £M towards tho costs, or twelve months* im- ■ prisonment. for making false statements in income-tax returns. Hβ was charged on seven indictments and pleaded guilty. to two. It was stated for the prosecution that for 1913-14-15 Williams paid £61 9s. 2d. as income tax. whereas he should have paid .6243 14s. sd. In 1916. ae returned his income at JE4OO instead o£ £1000. Hβ "had also, it was alleged, made false statements as to the profit of the tinplate company in each year from 1907 to 1914. Mating a plea for leniency, counsel for the defence said Williams had hitherto borne an irreproachable character, and had by his own industry raised himself, from a comparatively humlle station la life. He was also an abstemious man. and not given to extravagant living. Mr. Justice Bailhache said defgnpan ,l had defrauded the revenue ot Bot far short of .£3OOO, and described it as a mean offence. It mtant that dishonest men avoided their share of the nation a burden, and it meant that corresponding,ly heavier burdens would fall on honest men'who made honest returns. It wa3 pitiable that au offence of this sort should be committed by a man who outwardly lore an excellent and irreproachable, character, took part in religions a&tivities, and was a communicant member of a dissenting church. Williams was removed in custody, but was liberated on the fine and cosfa being paid.