THOUSANDS OF POUNDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 95, 23 April 1931, Page 10

THOUSANDS OF POUNDS.

THREE SYDNEY COURT CASES. EXTENSIVE FRAUDS ALLEGED. SOLICITORS AND MEDICAL AGENTS. j (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, April 17. Three cases now before Sydney Courts involving fraud charges, conspiracy counts and bankruptcy proceedings deal with the disposal of thousands of pounds. The fraud charges are those against Leila Beryl Smith (37), law clerk, who is charged with having during the last five years consptred with William Carnegie Clegg, solicitor, to defraud Harry Wilson and others of large sums of money. Clegg is also under arrest, though at the time he is in a serious condition in a private hospital in the suburbs. A constable is at his bedside day and night. In applying for a remand at the Central Police Court, the Police Prosecutor told the magistrate that the Crown alleged that Smith had been employed by Clegg for 18 years, that their operations were most extensive, and that people who had been allegedly defrauded had been paid interest out of their j capital. The total defalcations amounted to £50,000. Medical Agents Remanded. 1 wo medical agents, Raymond Barr Brown, aged 6(5, and Littleton H. Blunt. 30, are charged with having conspired between January 3, 1920, and April 10, 1931, to cheat and defraud the Provident Medical Society and other persons of large sums of money. The police explained that the defendants were in practice in Sydnev as medical agents, insurance brokers, medical accountants, debt collectors and income tax adjustors. It is alleged that large sums of money were paid to the two men as income tax, unemployment tax and insurance premiums, but had not been paid to proper authorities. In addition, large sums had been handed to them for investment, but had been retained by the defendants for their own use. Similar allegations are made concerning the moneys of the Provident Medical Society, which is a sickness insurance; for doctors. The police

have secured a long adjournment of the case in order to enable them to make a thorough investigation of the books, of the two defendants. Ex-Solicitor's Admission. The third case was that of an examination in bankruptcy of an ex-solicitor, Ed wo- 1 Hawkins, who adm H '"'! that although he had received nearly £14,300 of clients' money for investment lie could not account for it, and he was. now a pauper. He attributed bis bankruptcy to a long illness of his wife, and his own serious illness. The audience -.in the Court consisted of 20 former clients, mostly elderly women, who had given him funds to invest.