TRAGIC FALL

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 59, 31 October 1931, Page 3

TRAGIC FALL

CPress Assn.-

SIR ARTHUR WHEELER EX-M1LLIONAIRE BROKER FOUND GUILTY OF FRAUD KNIGHTED FOR WAR SERVICE

-By Telegraph — Copyright).

Rec. Oct. 30, 7.50 p.m. LONDON, Friday. The romantic career of the 71-year-old ex-millionaire stockbroker, Sir Arthur Wheeler, was brought to a tragic close at the Leicester Assizes when he was found guilty of 21 eounts of fraudulent conversion totalling £25,000. He received two years' imprisonment and his partner, George Smith was bound over for two years. The judge said that the gravest part of the punishment was not the fact that "Wheeler was found guilty but "that here in this city you have stood in the dock to hear it." It was the irony of fate that when the same judge was at the previous Leicester Assizes Wheeler, as deputy-lieuten-ant of the county, attended him to and from the Court and sat on the bench near the Judge. Wheeler rose from junior clerk to the possession of a great fortune and won national fame in respect of his organisation, the annual turnover which was £10,000,000. It employed 240 clerks, dealt with 60,000 regular clients and had a circulation list which totalled 500,000 addresses. The postage and printing hill exceeded £20,000 monthly. Thousands of investors relied implicitly on the judgment of Wheeler, who was knighted for his services during the war.