BOGUS COMPANY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 32, 7 February 1934, Page 8

BOGUS COMPANY.

'OVERSEAS PASSAGES.' MAN DEFRAUDED OF £200. CLERGYMAN'S EVIDENCE. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) HAMILTON, this day. Two charges of false pretences in connection with a mythical tourist company were admitted by Harold Bradley Brownrigg, aged 50, in the Police Court j to-day.

Brownrigg was charged with obtaining £50 from Ira Douglas .Stewart nt Hamilton on October 31, 1932, by the false pretence that h£ had a lrgistercd limited liability company at Auckland, known as Overseas Passages. Ltd., with a capital of £5000 fully paid up, and that the shareholders were retired sea captains and businefes men of Wellington, and that the purposes of the company were to provide cheap fares for passengers from New Zealand to England. He was further charged witli obtaining £150 from Stewart on November 15, 1932, by means of a similar fake pretence.

Douglas Charles Stewart, Presbyterian minister at Paterangi, gave evidence that he read an advertisement on October 27, 1932, asking for a young man willing to invest £200 in a flourishing business, at a wage of £3 a week. Witness interviewed accused in Auckland and accused made the representation contained in the charge. Witness was told that the company was registered, and he believed it was genuine. Witness and his son purchased 200 shares in the company, which were transferred to his son from Captain Jones. Brownrigg informed him there was £1000 set aside as security. "I now know all his representations were false," concluded the witness. Branch Office in Hamilton. Ira Douglas Stewart, the son, said that on October 31, 1932, he paid accused £50, and a fortnight later £150, as the balance on 200 shares. In November, 1932, witness opened a branch office of the company in Hamilton, and accepted between £00 and £80 in deposits from the public for intended passages. Of that money Brownrigg got about £30. Witness closed down the office early in March, when he found the company was bogus. He had lost £200.

Detective-Sergeant J. Thompson produced a signed confession by accused, admitting the company was not registered and that "Captain Walter Jones" did not exist. He had iised all the money. Accused was subsequently convicted in the Supreme Court at Auckland of another offence regarding Overseas Passages. Accused pleaded guilty and was committed to the Supremo Court for sentence.