DOWNFALL OF HAIRY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 881, 27 January 1930, Page 9

DOWNFALL OF HAIRY

FURIOUS GAMBLER WHO WOULD NOT STOP CLOSING SCENES IN COURT United P. A.—By Telegraph—Copyright Reed. 11 a.m. LONDON, Sunday. Hatry is said to be suffering: from it nervous breakdown. The question of appeal is still being considered, the grounds, it is suggested, include the claim that the sentence is excessive. The last scenes in the extraordinary drama of millionaire finance of the most sensational kind took place at the Old Bailey, when Hatry and tits colleagues were sentenced to imprisonment. The court was packed with business men and fashionable Mr. Justice Avory, who looked like a, figure of stone, spoke in his characteristic low, steely voice, which makes every word a whiplash. Hatry, pale and weary, his hands locked behind his back, rolled on his heels like a drunken man as he heard the sentence. His whole face was transformed into that of an old man, on which the pallor formed a grotesque contrast to hia small black moustache. “Stay!” said the judge, as Hatry turned to go below, and thus he had to hear another sentence of two years' imprisonment. When he had left thd dock the judge said: “‘Bring him back —I had forgotten the third indictment.” WOULD NOT STOP When the sentences were imposed on the others, the curtain dropped oit one of the worst financial crashes the city has known, involving £2,000,000. Hatry’s downfall is the tragedy of a man who did not know where ty stop. He might have left the city early last year with a substantial fortune. He remained to gamble with Fate for another £500,000, and lost. “I could clean up over £1,500,000 it I got out now, but 1 want to reach £2,000,000, and then finish,” Hatry declared to a former associate 10 months ago. Even three days before the crash he would not admit defeat, although the city was full of rumours. When he realised that he was losing home, wealth, probably freedom* the showman in him dominated him. Throughout the period of his remand in Brlxton prison the eternal question on his lips was: “What are they saying about me?” Hatry’s career, even allowing for thd chapter that closed at the Old Bailey, is one of the greatest romances of the city. Starting in obscurity, he was a millionaire at the age of 36. His ambition was boundless, but his motive was not so much a desire for money as an insensate wish to be regarded as the financial oracle of the age. HUGE COURT COSTS Outside business affairs he had n«* dominating interests. He toyed with various things, such as newspaper ownership, yachting, and racing. He acquired the famous yacht Westward for £40,000, and raced her occasionally, always unsuccessfully. Even racing held no thrill for him, although he won the Lincolnshire with Furious. Business predominated. He frequently withdrew from parties and went to hi* own West End mansion, where he would remain working until dawn. The costs of the trial and of thd police court proceedings are estimated at £20,000. They would probably have been from £35,000 to £40,000 if the accused had persisted in their plea of not guilty, and thus lengthened the trial. As a consequence of the default of Corporation and General Securities, Ltd., one of the Hatry group, the Wakefield municipal corporation has applied for Parliamentary powers to raise a loan of £325,000, in order to replace the misappropriated subscriptions to the original loan.