AGENT ON TRIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 821, 15 November 1929, Page 11

AGENT ON TRIAL

QUARTERLY DIVIDENDS CO. IN COURT FALSE PRETENCES ALLEGED 7Vt vs inii. i IN\ KRCAKUIIJ.. i' x . money by false ]»rcUTur.s against David N representative of Quartern Dividends, Limited, and National I louse Purchase. Limited, was begun before Mr. Jus- i iiee Kennedy. Addressii 1 g tin jur> the Ci *vn P >- secutor said the companies ware promoted in England by one Willi irn Tavern* r, who 1 N Zealand, organising: his companies in the Dominion. Accused had been up- | pointed secretary for New Zealand, and had conducted an active campaign for depositors. The two companies were in reality one concern, operating as two companies. but under the control of one man. The companies were small concerns with few - t Ht stressed the fact that the depositors j did not become shareholders. but * merely deposited their money for in- ! vestment, and had no say in the control or management. Money having been deposited, a series of “paper loans” w ere granted to * depositors, until the £.”*.000 class was reached, when it was stated that depositors would be entitled to drawdividends on that amount for the rest of tlieir lives. The dividends were also stated to be 20 per cent. SYSTEM OF PAYMENTS The allegations against the accused were that he had informed prospective depositors that by the payment of £2 Is and 35 monthly payments of £ll depositors would reach the £5.000 j mark in years. He would call the | best actuarial evidence to show that * the waiting - period for a second loan j of £SO would be ten times the waiting period for the first loan, which the | experience of New Zealand depositors 1 had indicated would be four years. The J waiting period for the second loan j would therefore be TO years, and so on down the list, the waiting period automatically increasing. The Crown Prosecutor reviewed the evidence at some length, and said that the Crown would call evidence to show that the accused knew that the scheme was unsound, and had in fact been informed that it was unsound. Yet, in spite of this, he had carried on, trading on the faith that ignorant people were apt to place in a man who. on occasions, preached the Gospel. Accused was not an ignorant man. On the contrary, he was a man with a University education, and was no fool. It would not be necessary for the jury itself to try to unravel the scheme, since the evidence for the Crown would be given by the Government actuary, who would pronounce “the whole scheme unsound.” Evidence along the lines of that given in the lower court was heard, * after which the court adjourned.