THE BOWRON CASE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 13, 10 July 1911, Page 5

THE BOWRON CASE.

GRAVE MERCANTILE FRAUDS. By Cable. —Press Association. —Copyright London, July 7. In the Borwon case Mr. Travers Humphreys, counsed for the prosecution, said that the books showed tli.it Knight, defendants' dock manager, without whose signature frauds were impossible, had borrowed from the firm £8460 and his son £2394. Nothing had been repaid. Mr. Muir, in mitigation of the sentence on John Bowron, urged his ag? and the fact that he had not made provision for his family out of the disaster. The turnover of the buriness in London had been £300,000 per annum for many years past, and the firm's capital had not exceeded £35,000 or £40,000. The Bowron family had lost £131,000 in the matter.

Sir F. A. Bosanquet. common sergeant, in passing sentence, said that defendant had been guilty of grave mercantile frauds. Tt would have been far tetter if the firm had gone into liquidation when in difficulties instead of continuing in speculation in the hope that trade would boom. There was no d(Terence in the cases of accused, and but for his age and the fact that John Bowron had not put by large sums he would have pronounced a sentence of penal servitude.