"MOST APPALLING."

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 21, 25 January 1930, Page 9

"MOST APPALLING."

Judge's Scathing Comment on Counsel's Plea. , MAXIMUM SENTENCE MERITED, (Received 12' noon.) " ' LONDON, January 24. Mr. W. N. Birketti K.C., addressingthe judge, on. behalf of Hatry. and his associates,;ahd seeking mitigation of the '"'•: sentence,declared "that -while .'Hatry; /was] aware of the gravity of his /offences,■! , which struck a blow at the integrity of ! ; public credit: and private dealing, he ■:'.: thought that by wrongdoing he iuight avert disaster and widespread suffering. Sfr. Birkett disclosed'that at, a meeting -held' at Hatry/s house . .Gialdini threatened that if!..'a decision were noit taken to transfer the shares he would blow his brains out oh the spot, rather - than face disaster. Mr. Birkett suggested, that this threat, at a time when Hatry was oversiramed, might well have; been the turning point. Hatry accepted the whole responsibility for ;all the offences; ' . for which he,, rather than his associates; ■:"., was responsible. . .."■ .•■':.■■■-■ /- •. ■, .- Mr. Justice Avory, in passing sentence, declared that defendants had been.con: yicted of the most, appalling frauds 'that " ;had ever disfigured the commerial reputation'of Britain. serious than any other great frauds within 50 years. Through wholesale . forgeries, which brokers, bankers and the public would never dream of -defendants had raised £795,000. Stripped of rhetorical" language, said the judge, the pleas for mitigation amounted to nothing more than the r ! threadbare, plea of 'a/clerk/ or -servant who, robbed his master and hoped to repay the money by jbackmgf winners before his crime "was discovered. Every forgery merited penal, for which reason he was obliged to consider the maximum penalty' the statute' provided. He was unable to imagine a Worse case.-" i--v.':