M.P. ARRESTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 196, 21 August 1939, Page 10

M.P. ARRESTED.

CITY SENSATION. CONSPIRACY CHARGES. FIRM'S INVOLVED AFFAIRS. WOOLCOTT FORBES LINK. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 18. A city sensation wa« caused yesterday when it became known that the U.A.P. State member for Hawkesbury, Mr. R. B. Walker, had been arrested on a train late last niyht on a charge connected with the missing company director Woolco'tt Forbes. About the same time as Walker was arrested on the Bogftabilla train at Muswellbrook, other detectives arrested Albert Levitus, 34, solicitor, and Clive Oscar Airey, 44, traveller, on similar charges. They were all charged that I>et\veen January 1, 1937, and May 31, 1930, they had conspired with Woolcott Forbes, William Kingslev Wicks, and the one with the other, to cheat and defraud various people of large sums of money and other property. When Walker was arrested on the train he protested vehemently, angrily demanded the reason for his arrest and insisted on immediate bail. He was told that he would be detained at Muswellbrook until the arrival of detectives, who left Sydney by car late on Wednesday night. Until an early hour yesterday morning, three other U.A.P. members (Messrs. J. C. Ross, C. E. Bennett and S. A. Lloyd) tried to arrange to lodge bail in Sydney for Walker, but were unsuccessful. Levitus was arrested in his bed at his Darlinghurst flat and Airey at his home in Mosman. Substantial bail was fixed in each case. The same bail was allowed William Kingisley-Wicks, accountant, when he was arrested early yesterday morning at Katoomba. The detectives brought him by car to the Central Police Station, Sydney, where they arrived at 3 a.m. At Muswellbrook yesterday, Walker ; was remanded to Sydney on £500 bail. He declared his complete innocence and said he had reported certain things about the Scottish Loan and Finance Company to the police as soon as he became aware of them. When a detective said the police had reason to believe that if heavy bail was not fixed Walker would abscond. Walker said this was a contemptible statement. The detective np. id that the matters reported by Walker to the police were not their first information about the company. He alleged that Walker had been forced to disclose them because the company had then no funds with which to carry on. The other three men were remanded in Sydnev, Levitus on bail of £li>oo and the other two on £800. It was stated, both at Muswellbrook and Sydney, that £240,000 was involved in the charges; that scrip h?d been issued in fictitious names and that practically the whole of the money had disappeared. C.LB. Investigation.

For many weeks the C.I-B. have been investigating the affairs of the Scottish Loan and Finance Company, now in liquidation. Since they took, possession of the company's books early in May, their inquiries have spread out into every State in Australia. Walker was for* merly chairman of directors of the company, Levitus was manager, Airey secretary and Kingsley-Wicks accountant. The affairs of several companies with, which Woolcott Forbes was connected have occupied a lot of space in the newspapers this week. On Tuesday, at *in informal meeting of shareholders of the Producers and General Finance Corporation, a shareholder, Mr. Bruce McNVilliam, said investors had lost more than £'2,000,000 in the P. and G. and two other companies, which he namud, and which are both at present tlia subject of actions in the Supreme Court. The meeting had been called by the directors to consider a report on their investigation of the company's affairs, but had to be adjourned for want of a quorum. The directors' report disclosed a loss of £400,731. Mr. W. B. Rainsford, chairman of the new board which was appointed after shareholders last November refused to adopt the 1938 accounts, said the balance-sheet to June 30 was nearly ready, and the directors were satisfied that the P. and G. was "quite dbmfortable" financially. He said there was not much they could do about Woolcott Forbes, but steps to have him declared bankrupt were only a matter j of time. Another director, Mr. G. Scarf, said the directors could not tell the shareholders the whole story because it would only knock their shares more. The meeting was adjourned until next Tuesday.

The former secretary of the P. and G., Douglas Jowett Bush, 30, appeared on remand in the Central Police Court on Wednesday, charged with having conspired with Woolcott Forbes and others to defraud the P. and G., its members and other people of large sums of money. Detectives produced a statement, which they said Bush had made in which Bush said that Forbes had asked him to get some share certificates issued in a hurry. Later, according to Bush, the scrip book could not be found. When he taxed Forbes with the matter, Forbes produced a book and asked him to keep it, but agreed to his suggestion that it should be burned as if retained by Forbes it might cause trouble. According to Bush, Forbes told him that he wanted to produce the scrip to help bim in pulling off a deal; but the deal had fallen through and the scrip had been destroyed. Bush stated that the names in which the scrip was issued were issued were Levitus, Bruce Walker and Woolcott Forbes.

Demand for Inquiry. When Parliament next week, Mr. Lee (U.A.P., Drunrmovne) will ask for a searching inquiry into the Woolcott Forbes case. He stated on Tuesday that he had information alleging that the Crowp Law Department, after having received certain advice from a leading firm of solicitors in November, 1933, delayed taking any action against Woolcott Forbes until January this year, when Forbes left Australia. Mr. Lee apparently referred to a reported statement at the P. and G. meeting by Mr. Scarf. Mr. Scarf was alleged to have said that certain discoveries, alleged to implicate Woolcott Forbes, were immediately made known to the company's solicitors (Stephen. Jacques and Stephen), who were advised to communicate at once with the Crown Law Office. Mr. Scarf ako stated that the solicitors wrote, and subsequently interviewed, the Crown Law Office advising that a certain course of action against Woolcott Forbes be taken at once. When it became known that Woolcott Forbes was in India the solicitors applied to the Crown Jav Offio* for an

warrant to bring hiin back to Sydney. Not until the solicitors had pressed their application and threatened to take "a most unusual course," it is alleged, was Detective-Sergeant Nye sent to Bombay with a warrant for Woolcott Forbes' arrest. Forbes was subsequently'allowed bail in India, but absconded and disappeared, and it was only the other day that the police decided to recall Detective Sergeant Nye, who had been searching for Forbes in Europe ever since. According to a cable from London this week, Mrs. Forbes, who went with her children to London at the end of last year, is in financial difficulties and is looking for a job there. The cable stated that Australians returning from Paris to London declared that Forbes was living openly in Paris. The Premier, Mr. Mair, has stated that he will not oppose an inquiry into the Woolcott Forbes case if he considers it necessary in the public interest.