BIG AMOUNTS

NZ Truth, Issue 1203, 20 December 1928, Page 8

BIG AMOUNTS

Spent by Mclntyre on Women LAND AGENT'S FALL (From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Wellington Representative). J A superior capacity to make money is of little real value | I if, while a man 's earning, powers are great, he has not learned 1 | the art of thrift and spends at a greater rate than he can | 1 accumulate. 1 | Counsel m the Wellington Supreme Court brought this | | point before Judge MacGregor when pleading for leniency on j | behalf of James David Martin Mclntyre, land agent, who ap- 1 | p eared for sentence on nine charges of fradulently converting = | trust moneys. . | p.iiii»iMiiiianniiHMiMHiiMiiiiiiiiii»iiiiiiiiiiii(iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiHiiM»niiii(iiii!iiiMii(iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii[iiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiniiiitiiiiinihiiii[nHiiii;

j AWYER H. H. Cornish, who ap- ■ peared on the prisoner's behalf, said Mclntyre came originally from Christchurch and was of good Scottish stock. He had a record as a business man and was liked and trusted m the community. He had one fatal weakness, however. He had not the gift of thrift, and m prosperous years had not made provision for lean ones that might come. Mclntyre, " instead of curtailing his expenses when he found himself going bankrupt, allowed himself to drift ' into dishonest actions. . Mclntyre had worked early and late, and had a good business, but his spending capacity was greater than his earning power. His position to-day was due to his not being- thrifty, and taking money to put off the day of bankruptcy. He had been a good citizen and an exemplary son, and counsel asked for as lenient a sentence as the justice of the court would allow.

I Crown Prosecutor Macassey told his honor that Mclntyre's case was a bad one of its kind. Apart from the money the prisoner had appropriated, he had private debts amounting to .something like £5000. For the twelve months ending October, 1928, £5000 • had passed through Mclntyre's trust account, and of this £2645 «wa_ drawn as commission and expenses. From this it would seem that he was spending at a great rate. His honor remarked, when imposing a term of two years' imprisonment' on' each of nine charges, the sentences to be concurrent, that the prisoner was m a position 'of trust and under a heavy liability to the public ' when lie used the trust moneys. "There can be no question of probation," he said. "I see by the police report that a large amount of this man's earnings and commissions have been spent on women," added the judge.