CLOSING SCENE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 138, 13 June 1934, Page 14

CLOSING SCENE.

MRS. EDOLS' FRAUDS. £45,000 THAT DID NOT EXIST. JUDGE PASSES SENTENCE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, June 17. At last finality has been reached in the case of Mrs. Aimee Belle Edols, not long ago one of the leading social lights of our city, whose bankruptcy affairs have been engaging the attention of the authorities for three years past. I have mentioned this case on several previous occasions and will refer briefly to its main points now. After bankruptcy proceedings had commenced in August, 1931, it became evident that Mrs. Edols had obtained largo sums of money from confiding people — mostly relations and friends —on various fraudulent pretexts, and the officials in bankruptcy were anxious to know what had become of it all. Mrs. Edols would not admit that she was insolvent, declaring that she had transferred assets worth £45,000 to friends in Melbourne. But she refused to give any information about this money or to name tkoso. entrusted with "it, and in August, 1931, she was committed to Long Bay for contempt of Court. There she romained for 2i years—a prisoner, but able to wear her own clothes, to cat special food, to receive friends in a pleasant sitting room and to write letter's without strict supervision. At intervals she was brought before the Court to be questioned, but beyond admitting that she had lost £14,000 in gambling within Ave years she still "stood mute" and refused to name the people to whom she declared she had entrusted her assets. "Kitchen Duties" in Gaol. In May, 1932, as a punishment for contempt she was sentenced to six months' "light" labour, which meant that she was transferred to the penal section of Long Bay Reformatory and was set to perform "kitchen duties." This sentence was repeated in September, 1932, and again in May, 1933, she appeared before Judge Lukin, who gave her a first warning in regard to "drastic proceedings" which might follow. But the spirit of this extraordinary woman remained unbroken and it was not till some months later that she admitted to the Court that the £115,000 "asset," which was supposed to be lodged in Melbourne, had no real existence. Meanwhile the authorities had been collecting material in regard to Mrs. Edols' methods of raising money, and in October, 1933, proceedings were instituted against her for fraud and false pretences. She was found guilty and remanded for sentence; and last week ehe was again before the Court on a similar charge—the whole involving many thousands of pounds. The situation was complicated by the fact that Mrs. Edols had been kept waiting trial for many months because she had not "purged "her contempt," and the Crown Prosocutor apparently did not quite know what to do with her. At last week's trial counsel for Mrs. Edols made a strong point of this "delay of justice," and Mr. Justice Halse Rogers promised to make allowance for it in passing sentence. May be Free in a Year. Mrs. Edols was sentenced on three counts —twice for fraud and misrepresentation, and also for gambling. The sentence was nominally for two years in two concurrent periods; but the judge pointed out that he must make some allowance for the time already passed in gaol, and that, with good conduct remissions, Mrs. Edols may expect to regain her freedom in about twelve months.

No doubt the punishment -is a severe one. Her lawyer pointed out in Court that she is now 61 yeare old, that she is in ill-health, that she has been a long time in custody, and that her sentence is a more serious matter for her than it would bo to a woman not so habituated to a life of case and luxury. Naturally Mrs. Edols must find it difficult to put up with prison garb and prison fare, and the menial duties which she must now perform; and the contrast with her past must be peculiarly bitter. Reckless Extravagance. When she was ono of the reigning queens of Sydney society, her reckless extravagance knew no bounds., She would enter a florist shop, glance at the contents of window or counter, and order "the whole lot" to be sent to her address. Her dealings with hairdressers, shoemakers and dressmakers were on the same lavish scale. She would telephone for a car early in the morning and keep the chauffeur waiting till 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon while she finished a novel; sometimes after he had waited the whole day she would give him one letter to post, or one book to take to the library. Even without tho accompaniment of limitless betting, this way of life ifi liable to lead to disaster. But those who find the contrast between Mrs. Edols' past and her present pathetic or tragic might spare some of their sympathy for the unfortunate relatives and friends on whose credulity and affection she played so skilfully and ruthlessly, to leave them fleeced and ruined in the ■ end.