CAPITAL OF £2.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 February 1922, Page 5

CAPITAL OF £2.

HUGE MINING FRAUD. SUM OF £133,500. BORROWED. London, Jan. 30. Joseph Aspinall, on a charge of fraudulently converting a mining syndicate’s money to his own use, has been sentenced to twenty months’ imprisonment with hard labor. On an issued capital of £2, Aspinall, a director of the Crafnant and Devon Mining Syndicate, borrowed £133,500 on promissory notes and promised shares, with which he bought a yacht and mo-tor-cars, rented a handsome furnished house in Wales, and a flat in London, keeping five servants. He converted the syndicate’s money to his own use, including £l2 as a weekly allowance for his wife, wihch was booked as mining wages. Aspinall registered the company with a nominal capital of £lOO to develop mines, with a view to their sale to a new company. He obtained loans for the syndicate, promising the lenders fully-paid shares in the new company. Aspinall began life as a wagon driver, and later joined the Salvation Army. He was sentenced for perjury and later gaoled for fraud. He was released in 1918, and soon after embarked on the mine fraud. He purchased a quantity of lead ore and deposited it in a mine. A witness said th't when seen by lamplight it shone like a jeweller’s shop.