A CLERICAL SWINDLER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 36, 10 February 1906, Page 5

A CLERICAL SWINDLER.

EXTRAORDINARY REVELAi TIONS. ■ i ACCOMPLICE OF MONTE CARLO WELLS. (Received 8.33 a.m.) LONDON, February B. William Davenport, 54, shipowner, of 147, Stamford-street, Blackfriars, and Vyvyan Henry Moyle, 71, a clergyman of j the Established Church, address refused, I were brought up at the Central Criminal i Court yesterday on the charge of con- ; spiracy to defraud in connection with the South and South-west Coast Steam Trawling and Fishing Syndicate, 156, Stamford street, on November 20, for which they had been committed by the stipendiary of 1 the Tower-bridge Court. In sentencing Davenport, who had been stated to be Wells, of Monte Carlo fame, to three years' penal servitude, and Moyle, to eighteen months' hard labour respectively, the Recorder (Mr. F. A. Bosanquet, K.C.) expressed his horror at Movie's re-admission to a cure of souls after his conviction and sentence to seven years at York in 1873, his fraud involving a sum of £11.000. Davenport had been sentenced in J893 to eight rears' imprisonment for a fraud involving thirty thousand sterling. [The crime for which these two persons have been sent to gaol was of a singularly impudent chaVaeter. With a stock in trade amounting to two worthless vessels, some fishing tackle and a Japanese doll I ; n a glass case (the last being used in | connection with some life-saving apparatus which they exhibited at Earl's Court). they proceeded to insert seductive advertisements such as this: '"If you don't mind my rather common business, somewhat similar to farming, and can invest £100 on mortgage, on short or long notice, you may secure a monthly income of about £20 without liability or partnership." They also succeeded in obtaining the support of a well-known financial firm, and obtained large sums in investment in concerns which were almost entirely imaginary.]