AMPLE EVIDENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 262, 5 November 1931, Page 7

AMPLE EVIDENCE.

PEER'S CONVICTION.

Lord Kylsant's Gaol Sentence

To Stand.

COURT or APPEAL DECISION.

(United P. A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright)

(Received 12.30 p.m.)

LONDON, November 4,

The' appeal of Lord Kylsant, the shipping magnate, against his conviction and also his sentence for making and publishing a prospectus he knew to be false in material particular in connection with the Royal Steam Packet Co., was dismissed by the Court of Appeal.

It is thought that Lord Kylsant will carry his appeal to the House of Lords. A friend of the peer said he received the decision with the same calm dignity he had maintained throughout the case.

Mr. Justice Avory, speaking deliberately and at length, surveyed the history of the case and expressed his opinion that there was ample evidence upon which the jury could: reach its conclusion. The prospectus was false in a material particular in that it conveyed a false impression by putting before investors figures which apparently disclosed the existing position of the company, but which in fact concealed the true position.

In other words, the documents implied that the company was in a sound financial position and that prudent investors could safely invest in it. This implication arises particularly from the statement that dividends had been regularly paid over a period of years, which was misleading because they were paid, not from current earnings, but from earnings of the abnormal war-time period, and that was omitted from the document.

If there was evidence that the document was false in the particulars already indicated, there was ample evidence upon which a jury could find that the appellant knew this falsity, knowing as he did the means whereby the dividend was paid.

The Court unanimously came to the conclusion that there was no misdirection of the jury, and that there was ample evidence upon which the verdict must be supported.

The appeal was accordingly dismissed,

Mr. Justice Avory, after a brief consultation with Ms colleagues, added: The Court is of opinion that the direction to the jury was too favourable.

Lady'Kylsant and the Earl of Coventry saw Lord Kylsant before he was taken to prison in a taxi.

Lord Kylsant, who has t>een described as the Napoleon of shipping, was better known before his peerage was conferred in 1923 as Sir Owen Phillipps, whose remarkable deals in connection with the Elder. Dempster Line, the Union Castle and Pacific Steam Navigation Lines, and his wonderful reorganisation o£ the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, and finally his purchase of the White Star Line, made him the greatest shipping figure in all history. His historic duel in the days before the Great War, with the great German director, Herr Ballin, regarding trade in the West Indies, is part of modern history. Lord Kylsant sat for ten years in the House of Commons, 1906-10, for two Welsh divisions. He is Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Sub-Prior of Wales, and Hereditory Vice-Admiral of North Wales.

Lord Kylsant, who, it is estimated, last year had under his control no fewer than 26 shipping lines, with a total capital of over £80,000,000, was charged with issuing a false prospectus in connection with the affairs of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. He was sentenced at London to one year's imprisonment at Wormwood Scrubbs gaol. His accountant, Mr. H. J. Morland, was at the same time acquitted of conspiracy to defraud.