GAMBLED AT 19... LOST THOUSANDS

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20504, 21 May 1938, Page 16 (Supplement)

GAMBLED AT 19... LOST THOUSANDS

People in the public gallery at the London Bankruptcy Court stared incredulously at. a smartly dressed young ev-publio schoolboy as they listened to a reoital by the Assistant Offlolal Receiver, Mr. C. T. Newman, of his admitted “mad gamble” which had resulted in his appearance in # Carey Street. Alfred Egbert Cheshire, 28-years-old bachelor, formerly a stockbroker, of Birmingham, was applying for his bankruptcy discharge. He failed three years ago with liabilities estimated at £29.274, but claims were admitted for £26,069 only, of which his father’s claim accounted for £21,695. Nervously fingering his neatly clipped military moustache, Cheshire sat with his father —elderly and whitehaired —and his fashionably dressed sister, listening intently to his exploits at, cards, roulette, horse racing, Stock Exchange, and other activities that had contributed to his financial failure. The court heard that:— In one year alone, Cheshire esti-

Now Favours the Homely Life

mated his losses to a bookmaker at between £BOOO and £IO,OOO. In the course of three years he had had seven cars. When only 19 he speculated in "differences" and betted on horsesHe had gambled at casinos in France. The court was also told of how he rented a luxurious West End flat at £2OO a year and furnished it as a cost of £625* on credit; of his expensive presents to women friends; and of the reokless way he had gambled generally in an efTort to retrieve his losses. “Deceived” After an explanation by Cheshire’s counsel, Mr. W. A. L. Raeburn, that he had fallen into the hands of bad company and had "been deceived right, and left,” Deputy Registrar Mellor suspended the bankruptcy discharge for two years. Mr. Cheshire’s comment after the case was: "I have finished with gambling and am now leading a quiet business and homely life.”