GIGANTIC FRAUDS ALLEGED

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 58, 1 December 1917, Page 3

GIGANTIC FRAUDS ALLEGED

A MILLION STERLING INVOLVED

SENSATIONAL SHOOTING CASE

An amassing and unparalleled story of alleged gigantic frauds which are said to liavo been committed in London was told recently by the "Daily Mail." Tho alleged frauds involve sums of money amounting to hundreds of thousands of pounds—indeed, the total may cvon roach near], a million pounds. At the beginning of the- war, when Belgium was being robbed of lior country, a wealthy Belgian syndicate was formed for tlio purpose of repairing motor-cars, motor-lorries, and other motor /vehicles belonging to the Belgian Army. Among the principals of the company woro M. do Prello do la Nioppo, M. Van den Plas, M. Masier, and M. Max Mahieu, four well-known and distinguished Belgians. As Belgium had practically no territory loft it was agreed that the company should carry on its business ,in England, and that the repairs should be paid for by the British Government on behalf of the Belgian Government. An enormous business was transacted by the company in Loudon, and many thousands of military lorries and cars that had been battered at the front woro sent to the company's promises to be made fit for war service again.

Four Arrests. Some months ago a great sensation was caused at the company's works when it became known that by order of tho Belgian Government the four principal officials named above woro arrested' iu London by tho Belgian military authorities and conveyed to Calais, where colossal frauds were alleged against them in connection with the repairs of military motor vehicles. The exact sum which they are accused of misappropriating is not known, but it amounts to hundreds of thousands of pounds, and may even amount to nearly a million. Tho Belgian authorities arrested the men in London for offoncossaid to have been committed in London by virtue of a convention' made between Belgium and England and published in the "London Gazette" on April 14, 1016. The first paragraph of tho convention is as follows:—

The Governments of Their Majesties the, King of Great Britain and Ireland and the King of the Belgians aro agreed during the present war 1 to recognise the exclusive right of jurisdiction. of the tribunals of their respective armies in the field in regard to persons belonging to those armies irrespective of tho nationality of the accused or the territories in which tlio armies are operating.

The four men were taken to Calais to be tried by court-martial, but they appealed against the competency of the court to try them, one of tli© points raised being that while two of the four were admittedly soldiers of the Belgian Army, tbe other two wore not in tho Army, and therefore the convention quoted above did not apply to them. The appeal was made to the Belgian High Courts of Justice sitting in Havre, and the Judges there declared the Belgian court-martial at Calais was the proper and competent authority to try tho case. The accused have now appealed to the Belgian Court of Cassation—the highest court of appeal in Belgium—but, Belgium having no territory, that court is not sitting, and consequently the trial of the four men remains in abeyance. Meanwhile they have been liberated on depositing securities to the amount of over £10,000 (255,000 francs). Lieutenant Augliuefc now.enters into this extraordinary case. He is an exceptionally able chartered accountant by profession. Ho joined tho Belgian Army as a private when war broke out and won decorations and his commission by repeated gallantry in the trenches. His professional abilitios were well known to the Belgian Government, and when the charges of fraud were made ho was sent from the firing line in Flanders in order to investigate tho accounts of the Belgian syndicate in London and Calais/

A Sensational Interlude. But .there was a sensational interlude. Augliuefc surrendered at Bow Street Police Court on a warrant charging him with attempting to murder .Raymond de Dryver, stated to be \i gentleman ranker in tho Belgian Army, by shooting him three times with a revolver across a table at the Belgian Government offices, India House, Kingsway. De Dryvpr, on leave from the Belgian Headquarters in France, where he was employed as clerk, visited the lieutenant in his room. For a short time the two men were alone together; then shots were heard. Officers ran into the room and found De Dryver lying on the floor with bullet wounds in the body and leg. Ho was very severely wounded. He was removed with all speed to Charing Cross Hospital. For wijeks De Dryver lay between life and death, but ultimately he was discharged from hospital. One of the first things he did was to apply for a warrant -fa? the apprehension "of his assailant "for attempted murder." Such an application from a private individual is almost without precedent in the history of 'British criminal cases. The defence which will be raised was that any action taken on the part of Lieutenant Auglraet was in self-defence of a threatened attack upon iiiin by De Dryver, who was in possession of a pistol, contrary to Belgian law—and he was subject to disciplinary trial for that broach of the law. The Magistrate granted a remand for six weeks and allowed Aughuet out on bail. The "Daily Mail" points out that De Dryver's case has nothing whatever to do with these alleged frauds. It is an interesting fact, however, and one which apparently lias been overlooked, that it was under tho powers conferred by the convention already mentioned that Lioutenant Aughuet was arrested in London by a Belgian military officer on the charge of shooting Do Dryver.