STRANGE BANKRUPTCY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 341, 30 September 1932, Page 2

STRANGE BANKRUPTCY

HUGH. McINTOSH'S AFFAIRS CAUSE REGISTRAR TROUBLE. Sydney. For some time past the affairs of Mr. H. D. Mclntosh have been an object of interest and curiosity to the Registrar-in-Bankruptcy, and he can hardly hlame the general public for being interested as well. For these affairs are complicated to the extremest degree of entanglement, and gradually the investigators have workcd their way to a point at which the law has found it necessary to intervcne. In the earlier stages of the examination it became clear that interest would centre largely round the affairs of the Rickards Tivoli Theatrss, of which Mr. Mclntosh was co-director along with Mr. Covell and Mr. W. J. Curtis, K.C., a well-known lawyer. It scems that balance-sheets were seldom issued to the shareholders, but after the assets were encumbered hy two separate dshentures, Mclntosh gave a third mortgage over them for £15,000. At this time, so the registrar ,was told, the company also owsd about £100,000 on long-dated promissory notes. All this was unsatisfactory enough, but the situation did not become critical till the investigators came to a sum of £13,570, which seemed to have been manipulated in somewhat mysterious fashion. Mr. Curtis, K.C., was subpoenaed, but failed to appear, and Mr. Windeyer, acting for the official l ecsiver, went so far as to hint that it might be necessary to issue a tench-warrant and arrest the recalcitrant witness. Mr. Curtis came to the inquiry nexf day and protested veher.isntly against Mr. Windeysr's statements, which he described as "deliberate untruths," declaring that his personal and professional honour had been impugned. As a matter of fact, ]ylr. Curtis had been engaged on the Tin Hare inquiry for six weeks, and he had taken advantage of a halfday adjournment to get in a few liours of golf. So that difficulty was smoothed over, ])ut worse trouble began. For Mr. Curtis did not, or could not, explain the meaning and use of that cheque for £13,570 5s lld, and when the third partner, Mr. Covell, was called tp give evidence the position was clearly becoming desperate. When Covell was asked where the £15,000 borrowed on third mortgage had gone and wheth'er it had ever been put to the company's eredit he could give no satisfaetory reply. As to Curtis, he could only say that he had lost about £130,000 "over night" in the sudden collapse of investments, but that he would have a complete explanation to offer later on. In the end, Mr. Windeyer drove liome his arguments to their logical c onclusion, and, at the instance of the liquidator, charges of fraud and conspiracy have been la-id against Covell, Mclntosh and Curtis, K.C. They are accused, as directors of Rickards Tivoli Theatres, of having applied varicus sums — including that mysterious £13,570 — in ways "other than for the purposes of the company," and the subsequent proceedings seem likely tp justify the claim of one of the leading dailies that this case is "the great legal sensation of recent times."