UNFAIR DEALER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 702, 29 June 1929, Page 13

UNFAIR DEALER

ATTEMPT TO EVADE AUCTIONEERS’ ACT £5 FINE IMPOSED (From Our Own Correspondent) HAMILTON, Friday. Judgment was given by Mr. S. L. Paterson, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court today in the ease in which Raymond Brock Seccombe, furniture dealer, Hamilton, was charged with holding himself out as an auctioneer, not being the holder of an auctioneer’s licence. The magistrate said he was satisfied that defendant held himself out as an auctioneer. Prominence and emphasis was given to his name in his advertisement. The fact that the name of the actual auctioneer appeared at the bottom of the advertisement did not help the defendant, nor did the magistrate think that the advertisement could be reasonably interpreted to mean that defendant was employing the auctioneer to sell the furniture. The object of defendant putting his name in the advertisement in the form in which it appeared was to lead the public to believe that he was an auctioneer, so that it might be induced to come to him to conduct similar sales by auction, when by adopting a similar procedure he could again obtain a share of the auctioneer’s commission.

This was unfair to auctioneers, and was within the mischief aimed at by the Act. The magistrate said he was surprised that a»y auctioneer should be a party to such a practice. The fact that defendant consulted the town clerk and the police did not absolve him. Defendant was no doubt anxious to comply with the law. He attempted to get round it, but failed. The maximum penalty was £IOO. A fine of £5 was imposed.