BUCKET SHOP FRAUDS

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 154, 30 June 1913, Page 5

BUCKET SHOP FRAUDS

A HEAVY SENTENCE. LONDON. June 2S. William Russell, one of the principals in a Birmingham bucket shop, was, yesterday sentenced to five years' penal servituue. Of £47.000 obtained from the public a sum of only £20.000 was returned.

Among the devices invented by man for the plunder nf his fellow-man, the ""bucket shop" is one of the most ingenious. A ""bucket shop" is a private gambling establishment which pretends f o deal in stock? and share?. Actually tlie

'"bucket shnp' , keeper only hots on thp rise and fall of stork?. Xo delivery i.'t script is ew intended or pretended. The public entrust their money to the keeper for the purpose of dealing in marjrins. The shares po up. and one get?—or should get —the profit. less, of course, the "backet shop' , commission. The shares 'slump, and the customer lose?. The "bucketer" speculates with most of his client*' money for hi? own advantage. With every rise in the price he can make money for himself; with every fall he can debit his customer. It is with him "head? I win. tails you lose." The client hx~ no redress, because, apart from the question of illegality, it i? impossible for him to prove his exact right to any rise, and the principals can neglect to execute an order.