TRAIL TO EASY STREET

NZ Truth, Issue 1196, 1 November 1928, Page 12

TRAIL TO EASY STREET

With Lavish Hand

The Blind Led the Blind, But Oh! The Aftermath . (From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Dunedin Repi*esentative.) There is often a wide difference between intention and result, and whatever were the wild hopes of Herbert Rollinson, son of a wealthy Studhoime family, and Harry Vincent, a well-connected Chr.stchurch business man, when (Aep pooled their wits and set out for easy street, they both. landed m court.

HpHAT they chose to reach affluence 1 by taking tile short-cut of dishonesty is rather a remarkable feature of what is the most impertinent series of false pretences the Dunedin police court has had to deal with for some time. Apart from their respective parentage, each man is credited- with business abilities and . hitherto respectability capable of discounting the likelihood of pecuniary want. , ' But headlong they plunged : — from one end of the country to the other, leaving behind a wild trail of worth.-' less cheques. Details of their mad escapade compile the essence of a hairbrained scheme which flirted with the law to lay the foundation for a business. . . . Herbert Rollinson is the'29-years-old son of a well-to-do' farming family of Studhoime (near Timaru), and had been employed by" Millburn Bros., sharebrokers, Auckland, selling shares m a flax-growing nroject at a salary

of £12. a week and commission. Harry Vincent, an older man by eighteen years, is well connected m Dunedin, and until re-

cently was engaged at Niven and Co., Ltd., as bowser expert. Both are.married and have families. Coming together some time last August, the two men joined forces and launched out m what was to be the flotation of a petrol service company; the while, it is assumed, soliciting sales m the flax business shares. , Neither was financially equal to the stress on pocket which is characteristic of most optimistic company promoters, : and to overcome this difficulty the pair let themselves go wild, with pen and cheque-book. % By this means they kept up the appearance of unrestricted funds, and m a lavish scatter of valueless cheques, between Auckland and Gore, handled a sum of £152/10/- m six or seven weeks — the result of nineteen false cheques. Arraigned before Magistrate Bartholomew, Rollinson (Lawyer White) pleaded guilty to obtaining the sum "of £56/1/1, comprised of the following

leaves out of Rollinsbn's book*. Then back to ChristchUrch, where they parted for Rollinson to complete their lucrative perambulations with a small cheque issued at Rakaia. "Practically all the cheques were cashed with hotelkeepers," concluded the police officer. "Rollinson ,has ,a wife and four children m the city, and comes from a highly respectable farming family, m the Timaru district. Vincent is an Englishman and has been m New Zealand some years. He is a man with good business instincts, and I understand he was first employed by the Kaiapoi Woollen Co. "Then he went into his own business, but owing to the slump ' was obliged to file. The whole trouble seems to have come about by the union of these two men. , Neither of them has been before the cougt before." "It seems ;to have been a -mad, get-rich-quick scheme, more fooli.sh than

gaged m contracting work m the North Island, and then took on what appeared to be a quite remunerative position- with'-a. flax company." The job, continued , counsel, . turned out to be disappointing, and accused was later offered a similar billet at £12 a week and commission with another firm.- After accepting the billet, accused found that he had to engage three other men on his own income, and as he was m charge of the whole of the South Island it was necessary for him to purchase a car. Rollinson assigned a month's salary m acquiring a £300 motor-car. ~ Meeting Vincent about two months ago, said counsel, the pair started out on their "madcap" scheme, and although they nad "gone through" about £150 In six or seven weeks it was on account of their having to "live m .style and mix with capitalists and influential people to do business." "Rollinson says," went on counsel, "that they could have made £250 m commissions at Gore, but

criminal," stated Lr a\\ y e r White, speaking for the younger accused. "Until' . Christmas time of last year Rollinson was en-