A PALPABLE FRAUD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 236, 29 September 1908, Page 2

A PALPABLE FRAUD.

who t;ox run aiowei'i By Telegraph.—Press Association. (Jlir)sU-liiu'L'll, Last flight, Huston Curlett, u registered money, lend,:]', appeared in pui'son boioru ilr. 11. \V. Ilishop, y.M., to-day to sue for l lie recovery of £220 from Mary Suiter, being money alleged L U iiav'e been k'lil to defendant, and interest t'iieivon I'hiintil] slated that on April Mil I<JO2, Jllr. liruges obt.ai.KM v.'o ,„Vm Win to lend to defendant for one month and u few dttvs later lie recked back £22. " " .

The .Magistrate: Tnid c«.,e is similar to the one in which Mr. Crcsswell appeared for you some time „g.), wuero tin; whole ease turned on tile privity of defendant.

Paintilf: No; this a iliflVvent case The Magistrate: Well, what lias Mrs Suiter got to do with the ease* 'the plaintill': J will show you if \ou give me time. All 1 want is an onjiortunity and justice.

The .Magistrate.: W.'io is. denying you justice? J won't iilloiv you'to"come li-'iv Mini bo iinporiiai'iit. ' ) have an unblemished record of 27 years, and I doirt allow a man like you to inrph against my character. it you l-urcc my liuild Jl will deal with you sodraslually that you will remember it all your life. Now go oa with your your ca«e. V

I'larntifl', after apologising, suit! he nitcd to shoir where the money had gone. He Mien eoinnieired to' make sonic rather serious allegations against lending local legal practit'oners. The Magistrate: ion ;rc not goin<; to make this case a vehicle for casting a lot of mud at lending numbers of the legal profesion. If wiut you say is true, you have yonr remedy. Plaintiff produced the following receipts:—"April 12th—Received from H. Curlett £220, being loan to Mrs. Suiter on transfer of security'; "April 14th, 1002—Received from F. H. Bruges £5 on account of loan to Mrs. Suiter," He said that til;, £220 was lent on security supposed to have been deposited with Bruges by a Mr. Lawrence on behalf of Mrs. Suiter, and out of the £5 ftp. recovered -El was paid for the. transfer of that security. He liad never seen the princip :1 nor the inter* est 3inoe, though his cheque for £220,1 which he produced, had lwn cashed. He never saw Mrs. ouiter about the loan at all, and never received any communication from sier. Klizabeth Ann Curlett said that about June, 1902, she was with the plaintiff in Bruges' office. She was there to see Bruges hi regard to some money she herself had lent. Curlett asked Bruges nJbout Mrs. Suiter's security. The money, Curlett said, had only been lent for a short period, and he had not received the security. Bruges said Goodman knew something about it and he (Bruges) would see it was attended to. In reply to a question by the Mag-

istrato, plaintiff said he had not laid a

criminal information aga'mst either Bruges or Goodman. lie wanted to prove the case in a civil Court. Mary Suiter said she never authorised Bruges to borrow £220 on her bohalf. She had lent money through Bruges. Ollivier had sent for her to come and prove as creditor. She never had one shilling of his money, and did not know Cnrlett. She got practically the whole of her money and interest back.

The. Magistrate: The whole thing is a fraud, a bare-faced fraud, and Mrs. Suiter is not to blanrc. It is a flagrant and disgraceful fraud on someone's part, and plaintiff ought to prosecute the party responsible. Plaintiff would be non-suited.