Trickster sent to prison

Press, 18 October 1980, Page 4

Trickster sent to prison

A confidence trickster! .who swindled Timaru people lout of large sums of money * for the Mayfair Mews, a ;motel and catering complex' j which later became Chateau i ; Fimaru, has been jailed! ’ again for fraud. i Mr Justice Roper jailed. j Thomas Douglas Henry, afreezing worker, of Oamaru. ; for 15 months on twop I charges of false pretence i land five of obtaining docu-;l 'ments with intent to de-! i ifraud, in the High Court at: ; Christchurch yesterday. I Henry had pleaded guilty : I

to the charges after originally electing trial by jury. His Honour referred to the Mayfair Mews venture as one of the most sophisticated schemes of fraud that had probably ever been perpetrated in New Zealand. In July, 1973. Henry was jailed for four years in the Supreme Court at Timaru on charges of forgery, false pretence, obtaining credit by fraud and pending a false telegram. To obtain money for his Mavfair Mews scheme Henry had claimed that he

was to inherit the entire fortune amounting to several million dollars of an elderly couple in Hong Kong. Henry pleaded guilty to charges of defrauding Douglas Henry Bull, a blacksmith and managing director of D. H. Bull, Ltd, of more than S4OOO by promising to supply steel beams and he also obtained money for the cartage of those beams and: for investment in a logging: venture. He defrauded Ron-1 aid Coleman of SISOO for : steel beams which were never delivered. After Henry pleaded guilty: Ito those charges he applied: (for bail on the ground that; Ihe was finalising a big dealt Ito sell meat pies to the: Japanese. Bail was refused' by Mr Justice Somers. Miss I. M. Mitchell. for ; Henry, said that the prisoner claimed that when he cont-i mitted the offences he was: being blackmailed. He had, got himself into a difficult.; situation and tried to deal his way out of it but onlyi got himself further in the! mire. The probation report said: that Henry was a man of. contradictions which wasi evidenced by the fact that' one of the references written! for Henry for his Court, appearance was front one of I

the men he had defrauded. His Honour said that as a result of Henry's criminal i activity he -had received sums totalling almost; S6OOO. “You are a curious mixture. Henry, and you do ’present contradictions as ‘Miss Mitchell said. You are highly regarded by some employers and entrusted with large sums of money with no doubt about your ;honesty.’’ his Honour said, i Henry had promoted .genuine schemes, which if they had come to fruition, could have made him a very wealthy man. He had some glowing testimonials oh Henry, including a rather equivocal one from Mr Bull, who was one of the persons whom Henry had defrauded. “As against that, in 1973, vou were sentenced to four years imprisonment for false pretence and other charges and that was for one of the most sophisticated schemes of fraud that has probably ever been perpetrated in New Zealand.” said his Honour. “Now once again, you have reverted to deceit and you and your counsel accept realistically that imprisonment is inevitable, although I don’t think for one moment that is going to be of anv help." his Honour said.