CONSPIRACY CHARGES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 137, 10 May 1940, Page 8

CONSPIRACY CHARGES

BANKING TRANSACTIONS. FURTHER EVIDENCE. Per Press Association. AVELLINGTON, May 9. Details of the hanking transactions connected with the charges of conspiracy and fraud against Gordon Percy Aston and Harvey Maitland Ciirystalf were given in the Supreme Court today by AVilfred Hugh Robertshaw, retired bank manager, who said that in addition to the nine cheques previously mentioned as being traceable to either of the accused there were other substantial amounts drawn on Sellers’s private account. The total involved was £2570. Donald Gordon Johnston, auditor to the New Zealand Racing Conference, said the conference’6 No. 2 Account was used to pay the salaries of junior members of the staff and to make advances to injured jockeys or trainers whose cases had not been heard. He first became aware of irregularities in tho account on June 13, 1939. AVitness detailed various withdrawals and said the shortage was £I2BO. Deducting Sellers’s salary the iund shortage was £1167 4s 6d. Mr Leicester referred to a statement made to the police by Cbrvstnll in which Chrystall said with reference to withdrawals by Sellers from No. 2 account: “I of course questioned his authority and he told me he was entitled to draw from this account his salary and against bis salary subject to the matter being adjusted.” “Assuming Sellers to have made that statement in regard to a cheque for £l5O, to what extent was that statement correct?” asked Mr Leicester.

Witness: To my knowledge it was incorrect. I have no knowledge that he could draw against his salary. To Mr Cunningham, witness said the total drawings on account by Sellers had been £1530, but £362 15s 6d had been replaced. Charles AVinfooton Tringham, a member of the executive of the Racing Conference, who was the next witness, said in reply to Mr Cunningham that Sellers had been a faithful secretary to the conference as far as he knew. . . Chrystall understood the position Sellers was in, said witness. The committee postponed further action for 14 days to allow Sellers and others associated with liim to clear up the position. Chrystall said the money would be forthcoming in the following week. STATE OF AVORRY. Herbert Richard Churton AVild, barrister and solicitor, of AVeliington, now with the Expeditionary Force at Trenthani, said he had known Sellers for a number of years and from February, 1939, lodged at Sellers’s house where he met both accused on J une 16,. the day the Racing Conference committee met. Chrystall came to Sellers’s house for tea. Sellers was in the be6t of spirits and said he had been “on the mat,” but Chrystall had made things right for him. Chrystall went to Australia and Sellers' sent cables to him and daily expected a cable from him. On July 2 Sellers left the, house on receipt of a telephone call early, in tho morning. He returned late at night. Next morning Sellers got up quite early. Ho was in the worst state of worry and went to the city about 8.30 a.m. His body was found on August 2 at Ngahauranga. As trustee under Sellers’s will witness said'he had received no payments from either, accused and had found no documents which defined Sellers’s interest. Cross-examined, witness said Sellers changed toward the end of the period. He lodged at Sellers’s house and Sellers appeared to he ordered about by Aston. He thought Aston was the directing force of the three men. > AVilliam Edward Brown, District Land Registrar, of Nelson, produced a certified copy of the freehold title to the property known as “The Hut” at Taliunanui. O.n October 1, 1937, Alma Monica Clarke, married, of Tahunanui, was the registered proprietor. At the time of the transfer there was a mortgage on the title securing a sum of £1750. That mortgage was still on the title. Mrs Clarke was the owner till December. 1939, when it was transferred to Electric Elements, Ltd., Christchurch. The transfer was signed bv Gordon Aston as Mrs Clarke’s attorney and by H. At. Chrystall as director of Electric Elements. Alma Monica Clarke, married, cashier, of AVeliington, said she bought “The Hut” property for £2750 exclusive of stocks, and ran tea-rooms there for 16 months till December, 1937, when her husband left his job a.nd signed a contract to work for Aston. The hearing was adjourned till tomorrow morning.