FAKED LEAD MINE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 72, 25 March 1922, Page 19

FAKED LEAD MINE.

JIADE LIKE JEWELLER'S SHOP. "Callous, cruel, and mean," was how the Common Sergeant described, at the Old BaLtey, London, the conduct of Joseph Asplnall, mining director, who was found guilty of misappropriating £7,000, tbe property of the Crafnant and Devon Mining Syndicate, Ltd. Asplnall was sent to pri-on lor 20 months with bard labour.

Mi-. Pcrcival Clarke, prosecuting, described the case as a gigantic swindle. "Here is a man," he said, "without a penny of his own, who has been a bankrupt since 1!)12. He seeks out tbe services of an ex-convict. 1 don't say blame a man because he knows an ex-convict. but If your scheme Is honest, why not go to an honest man?" From the extent of the subscriptions obtained for the syndicate ruin had been brought to a large number of persons, among tbem many womefi. Asplnall began work as a wagoner at a colliery at Westhougbton, near Bolton, and In 1902 started ill business as a manufac- j turer of colliery appliances. He took a iea;e j of the Central Colliery. Bucknall, Stokeon- j Trent. In his spare time he was a bandsman in the Salvation Army. ■ As a result of his answers in his bank I rnptcy he was sentenced in 1913 at the Stafford Assizes to nine months' imprisonment wtlh hard labour for perjury. After his release he became ostensibly manager , of a coal company at Sheffield, his fa the.- in- . law. an old age pensioner, being put forward , as the proprietor. | Aspinall then got in with "a gang of con- ; victed tricksters," who came to London, and '• in June, 1917, he was tried with three others at that court for fraud, and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment in the second j division. He was released in February. I9IS, | and immediately revived bis acquaintance j with oue of the other prisoners. j Aspinall. continued Mr. Clarke, employed men at wha* was called the Klondyke mice in Wales. From their statements, a dump of metal brought from Cornwall was supposed to be used for decorating the mine. When any interested person wanted to see the mine lead ore was taken from the offices and placed in the mine in such a way as to make it look like a lode. More of tbe lend was thrown down to look as if it bad been chipped off in the working. Defendant would then bring the persons interested to see the mine, and "with the lights produced tbe place shone like a Jeweller's shop."