HATRY GROUP GUILTY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 880, 25 January 1930, Page 1

HATRY GROUP GUILTY

All Get Penal Servitude

FOURTEEN years for principal

Fresh Frauds Revealed

Received 10.20 a.m. LONDON, Friday. rS four accused in the Hatry trial, Clarence C. Hatry, Edmund Daniels, Albert Edward Tabor and John Graham Dixon, withdrew their plea of not guilty and pleaded guilty to the charges. The jury returned a verdict of guilty. Hatry was sentenced to 14 years’ penal servitude, Daniels to seven years, Tabor to three years and Dixon to five years.

' All defendants were found guilty on the charge or rorgery of securities. Hatry, Daniels and Dixon pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring with Gialdini and other persons unknown to defraud, hut guilty to five other charges of obtaining cheques for large amounts by false pretenses. TaDor pleaded not guilty to the Whole of the additional counts, and ■was formally found not guilty. Sir William Jowitt, Attorney General, said he did not propose to proceed with these fresh counts, but asked that they be allowed to remain on the file. He said the money raised hy false transfers in shares in Drapery Trusts and in Associated Automatics was nearly £700,000. PUBLIC LOSES HEAVILY When the hearing of the charges was resumed. Sir Gilbert Garn»ey, describing the results of the three months’ investigations, said the total deficiency of the Hatry companies at the date of liquidation was £13,500,000, on which there was not the smallest prospect of any dividend. 1 The loss to the general public, as distinct from bankers, stockbrokers, and dealers, would not exceed £750,000. Under cross-examination the witness revealed that Hatry had depleted himself of every penny to avert the crash. He had thrown in his family settlement, amounting to many thousands of pounds, and was now faced with bankruptcy. The case for the prosecution was concluded. HATRY -THREATENED Counsel, addressing the Judge in seeking a mitigation of the sentence, declared that while Hatry was aware of the gravity of the offences, which struck a blow at the integrity of public credit and private dealing, he thought by wrongdoing he might avert disaster and widespread suffering. Counsel disclosed that at a meeting held at Hatry’s house John Gialdini, the absent director, threatened that if a decision were not taken to transfer the shares, he would blow his brains out on the spot rather than face disaster. Counsel suggested that this threat, at a time when Hatry was over-strained, might well have been the turning point. Hatry had accepted the whole responsibility of all offences for which he, rather than his associates, was responsible. “APPALLING FRAUDS” Mr. Justice Avory, in passing sentence, declared the defendants had been convicted of the most appalling frauds that had ever disfigured the commercial reputation of Britain. They were more serious than any other great frauds within 50 years. Through wholesale forgeries which brokers, bankers and the public would never dream of suspecting, defendants had raised £795,000. Stripped of rhetorical language, the pleas for mitigation amounted to noth-

ing more than the threadbare plea of a clerk or servant who had robbed his master and hoped to repay the money by backing winners before his crime was discovered. Every forgery merited penal servitude. He was therefore obliged to consider the maximum penalty provided by the statute. He was unable to imagine a worse case. On charges of conspiracy to obtain £209,141 by false pretences, Clarence C. Hatry and three business associates, Edmund Daniels, Albert Edward Tabor and John Graham Dixon, appeared at the Guildhall Police Court, London, on September 21 last. The detailed charges against defendants were: That in the City of London between July 1, 1929, and September 20, 1929, they unlawfully conspired to obtain by false pretences from George Ireland Russell, acting on behalf of the Porchester Trust, Limited, the sum of £209,141; and, further, in pursuance of that conspiracy they did obtain the said sum from George Ireland Russell and the Porchester Trust, Limited. Further charges were brought against the four men on November 23, namely, that by false pretences and with intent to defraud, they obtained:—(l) On July 3, from Cohen, Laming and Company, a cheque for £60,000; (2) On July 8, from the American Express Company, £5,000. (3) On July 2, 1929, from Lloyds Rank, Limited, £55,000 Debenham, Limited, 5 per cent. First Mortgage Debenture Stock, and £IO,OOO Anglo-American Oil Company, Limited, Five and a-half Debenture Stock, and £5,000 Timothy White (1928), Limited, Preference Shares. (4) On September 2, from Nathan and Roselli, a cheque for £20,000. (5) On September 5, from Myers and Co., a cheque for £15,000. (6) On July 19, from Lloyds Bank, Ltd., a banker’s draft for £144,000. (7) On August 12, from Crews and Co., a cheque for £25,000. (8) On September 12, from John Rossage and Co., a cheque for £35,000. (9) On September 12, from E. P. Parsons and Co., £5,352. (10) On September 12, from J. Horstman and Co., Ltd., £2,655.