Stockmarket ‘high flyer’ guilty of share fraud

Press, 1 June 1989, Page 22

Stockmarket ‘high flyer’ guilty of share fraud

A man who ordered shares valued at $137,500 through a Christchurch broking firm when he had no money, was found guilty, by a jury in the District Court yesterday of a charge of defrauding the company. Lindsay Robert Mason, aged 35, a psychiatric nurse, was described by his counsel, Mr Mervyn Glue, as foolish and a high- flyer, but not a criminal. Mason had said in evidence that he did not believe the shares would be purchased for him as he had not paid the $lO,OOO deposit which was demanded by the company.

Mason had denied the charge that on or about October 15, 1987, he in-

curred a debt of $137,500 with Egden Wignall and Co., thereby obtaining credit by fraud, by falsely saying he would pay $lO,OOO deposit to ensure the purchase of 50,000 Robert Jones Investment, Ltd, shares, valued at that time at $137,500. Upon the jury’s verdict, reached after a retirement of 3% hours, Judge Erber remanded Mason on bail to June 7 for probation and community service reports, and sentence.

Mason was adjudged bankrupt in the High Court in April, on the petition of Egden Wignail, according to evidence heard during the trial.

The Crown, represented

by Mr Brent Stanaway, had contended that Mason had committed the fraud by promising to call into Egden Wignall with the required $lO,OOO deposit by about 4 p.m. on the day the shares were purchased for him. He did not do so, and had neither the intention nor the means of paying the $lO,OOO at the time, it was alleged. Mr Glue, for Mason, had submitted to jurors that Egden Wignall had tried to push through this large sale, and that a principal of the firm had waived the original requirement for the deposit money to be in the firm’s hands before the shares were bought by Mason. In his final address to jurors, Mr Glue said

Mason had been foolish, but was not a criminal. He was a pathetic little man whose grandiose ideas got him into a dreadful mess. Counsel said that without telling Mason, Mr Norbert-Munns had waived the condition of requiring the $lO,OOO deposit before the shares were purchased on his behalf. He had told a sharebroker employee, Mr Colin MacDonald, to go ahead and buy the shares. Then the share crash occurred.

Mr Glue said Mason contended there was no contract entered into as the shares had been purchased without the $lO,OOO deposit that Egden Wignall had demanded from him.