DAIRYMAN RENTS CASTLE AND ESTATE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 383, 18 June 1928, Page 11

DAIRYMAN RENTS CASTLE AND ESTATE

BANKRUPTCY “SPECIALIST" CRAZE FOR BUYING MANSIONS A debtor who was said to have rented a castle and 2,500 acres of shooting, appeared in Bath Bankruptcy Court, recently. The man, Geoffrey James Playfsrir Pitchford, a farmer and dairyman, of Colerne (Wiltshire) and Bath, and formerly of Flint, Hockwold (Suffolk), Folkestone, Isle of Wight and Newport (Pembroke), was in charge of an escort of two warders. He w T as stated by the Official Receiver to be at present undergoing sentence of a year and eight months’ imprisonment for obtaining credit without disclosing that he was an undischarged bankrupt. Pitchford’s liabilities were £6,742, with an estimated deficiency of £4,167. Asked whether he was adjudged bankrupt at Chester in March, 1909, while living at Flint in the name of De Pitchford, the man replied that it had cost him three years and £60,000 to deny that bankruptcy. ANOTHER BANKRUPTCY. With regard to bankruptcy proceedings against him at Shrewsbury in 1921, when liabilities were £5,092, Pitchford said he thought his discharge had gone through, otherwise he would not be in the position he now was in. He admitted that since 1923 he had taken Newport Castle, Newport Pembroke, for two years, with 2,500 acres of shooting. Questioned regarding the purchase, in the name of Playfair, of Christmas Hall Farm, Hockwold, Suffolk, he said he valued it at £2,000, and would be surprised to hear that the bank from which he obtained a loan would consider themselves lucky if they could obtain £SOO for it. Pitchford admitted that in June. 1926, without any capital, he entered into a contract to purchase Duncombe Farm, Colerne, Wiltshire, for £4,700. I With regard to an attempt which he made in 1924, to purchase Hazel Manor, Compton Martin, Somerset, for £16,000, Pitchford declared he was acting for a firm of timber merchants. The Official Receiver reported that the owner brought an action for recission of the contract and recovered possession.