ARCHCRIMINAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 222, 19 September 1930, Page 7

ARCHCRIMINAL.

MERCILESS SWINDLER.

£100,000 Frauds That Ruined Wealthy Victims. ! FIVE YEARS' PENAL SERVITUDE (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright)

LONDON, September IS.

The trial of Michael Dennis Corrigan, engineer and . formerly a racehorse owner, at :he Old Bailey, where he was sentenced to five years' penal servitude for fraud, revealed an astonishing record' of crime.

Corrigan, who is 46 years of age, r,epre r seal ted himself as being employed by the Standard Oil Company; at a .salary of £56,000 a year. He obtained a sum of £18,000" from Mrs. Harrojd, with whose daughter he carried on; an illicit love affair, he being already married.

Accused first attracted the attention of the .police when he was a second grade steward iii a steamer. Then he joined the Ministry of Munitions,. where he called himself Major Cassidy. v' J <: ! -

■ Subsequently, for five years,' Corrigan exploited imaginary concessions in Yucatan, Mexico, ruining several victims, his frauds involving more than £100,000.

: In sentencing accused the judge said he had been guilty of bad and cruel frauds. He had shown no mercy. One wealthy, victim had lost, everything and had been obliged to become a clerk in an insurance company's' office while Corrigan lived in luxury at the best hotels in England and France.