TRUST BETRAYED

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 124, 22 November 1932, Page 7

TRUST BETRAYED

DISHONEST SOLICITORS

SYDNEY'S REMARKABLE * RECORD

(From '^'The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, 17th November. It is little wonder that in Sydney the agitation for. the institution of definite Government control of trust funds held by solicitors should take more definite form. The New Zealand law in this regard has been freely quoted during the last week or so, and the State Government has been urged to provide for the regular auditing of. all trust accounts. It is also suggested that before a solicitor is permitted to handle trust money -he should lodge with the Government a substantial amount, sufficient to show that heia at least financial and unlikely to be tempted to rob his clients. ' - Hardly a week passes 'in Sydney without a dishonest solicitor 'being struck off the roll, and it ;is estimated that defalcations by solicitors revealed so far this year run to at least £300,000. The latest revelations concern the bankrupt estate of. Arthur Bernard Davies, who practised as a solicitor in Sydney for mere than twenty years. He was held in the- highest esteem by a very wide circle of< influential friends, yet shortly after lie had committed suicide in his palatial home, at Hunter's Hill it was discovered that his trust funds were short to the tune of at least £26,000. In subsequent proceedings in bankruptcy last week his private secretary stated that Davies kept no books whatever. The only record of transactions concerning trust funds was that given on the butts of old cheque, books. The total defalcations probably exceeded £30,000. An examination of the list of defaulting^ solicitors reveals some astonishing examples of fraud. William Edward Hawkins, aged 69, who was sent to gaol for a year and nine months a few days ago for misappropriating trust funds, had been praetisingnn Sydney'for 46 years. He was ,i prominent churchman and a leading Shakespearian scholar. Spread over a number of -"-ears Hawkins misused £,10,000 in "trust funds. During his examination in bankruptcy the Court was crowded with his unfortunate clients, many of them old tv-omen who could ill afford to lose their money. In the witness box Hawkins adopted the attitude of failing to remember what lie had done with the trust money. Another glaring case was revealed in connection with a bankrupt estate of the late Eric Kendall Bowden, a former Minister for Defence in the Bruce-Page Government. He had practised as a solicitor for 38 years and many of those who reposed trust in him are now ruined, for £,18,000 could not be found. The biggest fraud of all was that committed by William Carnegie Clegg, another Sydney solicitor, who for years was closely associated with the Church and charitable'undertakings. His affairs are in hopeless confusion, and he is already serving a substantial term of imprisonment. He is brought to the city every clay in order to assist the officers of the Court in dis- [ entangling his affairs. Ho probably robbed his clients of "not lc°s than I £200,000.

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