BOGUS PICKLE FACTORY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 16, 20 January 1926, Page 6

BOGUS PICKLE FACTORY.

I : ■ I THREE YEARS FOR RUFF,; i j " AJS rSEPtTBENT SWESTDZEainr ffl j MONEY FROM "SIMPLETOISrS.'" <■ % "It is quite evident that you are att ! impudent: swindler, and it would only jbe trifling with justice to impose other I than a substantial sentence upon you_ j i sentence you to three years' imprison- ■■■ | ment and declare you an habitual { criminal.'' ; in this manner. His Honor. _._" r . Justice Stringer, dealt in the Supremo - ! < ourt this morning with Robert Ruff I i who had pleaded guilty in the Lower A ■ Court to rive charges of false pretences, | involving a sum or" about £fi()0. Ruff I was die. person whose bogus "pickle- [ factory-" was responsible for six persons', | characterised by the Judge this mornuvT *■ jas simpletons, falling to his bluff and! S j parting with money for shares in the " j "business." The people who were "taken down made their acquaintance with Ruff through advertisements. Asked if he bad anything so say. Ruff produced a written statement which wag ' . handed to the .Judge. After reading- it ' I his Honor remarked. "If this is "so . I everything you did was in good faith j and you should have pleaded not guiltr.. I [ cannot believe it."' Questioned by the Judge as to what had happened to the £575 involved, MrMeredith (Crown Prosecutori said tha i police had been unable to recover it.. j Prisoner would not disclose what ha- • I had done with it. j "Prisoner, in the course of six months; ] you have extracted from various simple- ! tons, close on £600. What have yon 1 done with it?" asked his Honor. j Ruff, who has no roof to his mouth, said he had paid it out to various j people. He had kept no books nor did Ihe have a banking account. } Prisoner's record showed that he had!, i been convicted for theft in 1903, and in; 1905. and for two charges of falsa pretences in 1922. En passing- sentence, the Judcte saiil that Ruff was evidently trifling ra« ] garding the disposal of the money.