NEW SWINDLE

Hokitika Guardian, 10 July 1928, Page 4

NEW SWINDLE

BOGUS LAND SALES,

SYDNEY, June 28

Swindlers are everfastirigty discovering something new. In Victoria and New South Wales they have been engaged in bbgiis land sales, and by some means or other they seem to have kept within the law. They have found the swindle, very lucrative. Y Tlio other day three more settlors called at the Criminal Investigation Department in Melbourne and complained that they had been “tricked” by land salesmen to sell their blocks in tlie country at a “handsome” profit and buy blocks in suburban sub-divis-ions. The'men explained., that they had been told that their country blocks had been sold at a profit of several hundreds of pounds and on these representations they had been induced to invest further in eity blocks, which they had been told by the salesmen could Imj resold at a good profit. After the settlers had paid their cheques for the surburban blocks, they discovered that their country blocks had not been sold and that, as no documents had been signed, they had no legal redress. The salesmen, however, the men explained, had taken care to have aIL the necessary documents in connection with the sale of suburban blocks signed, with the result that the settlers found themselves committed to large liabilities. The salesmen who adopt' these tricks, the police say, are either confidence men or associates of “magsmen.”

One man who complained in Melbourne said that he had been told that bis land was sold at a profit of 100 per cent, and he was induced to buy other land for £ISOO. The cheque for the land he first .held never came to hand, and the man found himself absolutely committed to tbe contract for £ISOO. Arising but of tbe complaints, the police recently took action against a man on a. charge of .having obtained money from a woman by false pretences. The accused, however, was acquitted by direction of the judge, who held' that there was no evidence to support the charge. It would seem that the men who have been tricked were extremely simple, hut it would seem also that there are more simple people than there are swindlers. The police recognise that the simpletons must lie protected and the matter of amending the law to bring the latest type of swindler within it is now receiving attention in Iwth States.