Bankrupt Discharged

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30144, 30 May 1963, Page 8

Bankrupt Discharged

Jackie Owen Smith, aged 38, formerly an agricultural contractor of Amberley and now a driver, was granted animmediate discharge from bankruptcy by Mr Justice Wilson in the Supreme Court yesterday. He was represented by Mr K. W. Thwaites. Smith was adjudged bankrupt on October 11, 1961, on his own petition. The motion for discharge was opposed by Mr R. B. Shand, representing the creditors. A dividend of 10s 2d had been paid, and the application was not opposed by the Official Assignee (Mr O. T. Grattan). To Mr Shand, Smith said that his assets and equipment were frozen by the Official Assignee about the time of his bankruptcy. The equipment was used afterwards only to give demonstrations to intending buyers. From the time the plant was frozen he earned his living as a transport driver on Banks Peninsula. He was not engaged in business on his own.

Mr Shand: Who owns the 1938 V 8 motor-car you drive? The witness: My name is on the ownership paper. The witness said he bought the car about eight months ago for £2OO. He paid a deposit of £lOO by trading in an old car he owned at the time of his bankruptcy. The balance he was paying in instalments. The television set in his house was his wife’s. She was using the family benefit to pay for it at £2 a week. No deposit was paid on the set, which would cost £2OO. His wife was working to pay for the extra things in the house. The motor-van on his property was bought before last

Christmas on hire purchase. It cost £3OO and his wife paid the £l2O deposit from her thrift club savings. She paid £l2 a month on it.

The witness said the radiogram he owned cost £5. This was for change of ownership and there was £2O to pay at 15s a week under a hirepurchase agreement on it. He had assumed the hire-pur-chase payments from a friend.

Mr Shand: You then paid your friend to discount him? The witness: No. He didn’t want anything for it. The witness said he had no assets other than those mentioned and those left with him by the Official Assignee. He thought he had played the game. Mr Shand: You think there was. no justification for your creditors in Amberley being hot about you? The witness: No. I don’t. If they had left me alone they would have got their money.