FINANCIAL DRAMA

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 104, 27 January 1930, Page 11

FINANCIAL DRAMA

CLOSING SCENES IN OLD BAILEY SENTENCE OF FOURTEEN YEARS ON HATRY SHORTER TERMS FOR ACCOMPLICES The sensational case in which Hairy and his accomplices were charged with forgery and conspiracy, concluded at the Old Bailey, Hatry being sentenced to fourteen years’ Imprisonment, and the other three accused to shorter terms. (United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Rec. January 25, 5.5 p.m.) • Rugby, January 24. The trial concluded to-day of Clarence Hatry and his three co-defendants, Edmund Daniels, John Graham Dixon, and Albert Edward Tabor, on charges of extensive forgeries and frauds, involving large sums of money. The main counts against the defendants, who were all directors of what was known as the Hatry Group of Companies, were that they conspired together to forge certificates of stock of the Corporation of Swindon. Gloucester, and Wakefield, on which they raised £789,000, and that they fraudulently withheld or appropriated a further sum of £882,000, which they received for genuine stock of those corporations. The case came to a dramatic termination to-day, when all the defendants withdrew their pleas of not guilty, .and pleaded guilty. Mr. Justice Avory passed sentences of penal servitude of 14 years on Hatry, seven years on Daniels, five years on Dixon, and three years on Tabor. Various sentences on the other counts were imposed, but they run concurrently. The effect of them is that during the first two - vears of the main sentence each prisoner will undergo hard labour. The Judge described the frauds as the most appalling that had ever disfigured the commercial reputation of this country.

REMARKABLE CAREER (Rec. January 26, 5.5 p.m.) London, January 24. The last scenes of an extraordinary drama of millionaire finance of the most sensational kind were staged at the Old Bailey when Hatry and others were sentenced. They were placed in a court packed with business people and fashionable members of society. Mr. Justice Avory, like a figure of stone, spoke in his characteristic low, steely voice, which makes every word a whip-lash. Hatry pale and weary, with locked hands behind his back, rolled on his heels like a drunken man as he heard the sentence. His whole face became transformed and the pallor was a grotesque contrast with the blackness of his small toothbrush moustache. “Stay,” said the Judge, as Hatry turned to go below. Thus Hatry had to hear another sentence of two years’ hard labour. When he had left the dock the Judge said: “Bring him back. I had forgotten a third Indictment.” When the sentences had been imposed on the others the curtain dropped on the worst financial crash in the City, involving two millions sterling. Did Not Stop in Time. Hatry’s downfall is the tragedy of a man who did not know where to stop. He might have left the City early last year with a substantial fortune. He remained to gamble with fate for another half-million and lost. “I could clean up over a million and a half if I got out now, but I want to reach two millions and then finish," he declared to a former associate ten months ago. Even three days before the crash he did not admit defeat, though the city was full of rumours. When he realised that he was losing his home, wealth and probably his freedom the showman in him dominated. Throughout the remand period at Brixton Prison the eternal question on his lips was: “What are they saying about me?” Romance of the City. Hatrey’s career, even allowing for the closing chapter being at the Old Bailey, is one of the greatest romances of the city. Starting from obscurity he was a millionaire at thirty. His ambition was boundless, but his motive was not so much desire for money as an insensate wish to be regarded as the financial oracle of the age. Outside his business affairs he had no dominating interests. He toyed with various things, such as newspaper ownership, yachting and racing. He acquired the famous yacht Westward for £40,000 and raced occasionally, but unsuccessfully. Even horse racing did not thrill him, though he won the Lincolnshire with Furious in 1920. Business predominated. He frequently withdrew from parties at his own West End mansion to remain working till dawn. Magnificent Mansion. His magnificent mansion contained palatial white marble swimming baths on the first floor, where as many as twenty could engage in mixed bathing. The bottom was lined with long strips of varicoloured lights—red, mauve .and purple—giving the water the appearance of a rainbow liquid. One room was converted into a restful imitation of an old English inn, with a stone floor, spittoons, beer barrels, an old-fashioned fireplace, brass candlesticks and a cocktail and liqueur bar, Outside was hung the sign, “Ye Olde Stanhope Arms.” There was also a complete gymnasium, and one of the finest and most attractive ballrooms, with glittering chandeliers, musicians’ ' gallery, organ and electric spotlight. Hatry had many great qualities as a man, and as a business man he was generous to a fault. When he reached the cell he turned to the gaoler, and said, “Fourteen years! Well, that’s that. Mrs. Hatry, who has been used to every luxury money can obtain, is left penniless.” He thereupon completely collapsed. COST OF TRIAL (Rec. January 26, 5.5 p.m.) London, January 25. The cost of the Hatry trial and the Police Court proceedings are estimated .at £20,000, They, would probably have

been from £35,000 to £40.000 if the accused had persisted in the plea of not guilty, thus lengthening the trial. WAKEFIELD WANTS ANOTHER LOAN London, January 24. Arising out of the default of the Corporation and General Securities, Limited, one of Hatry’s group, the Wakefield Municipal Corporation has applied for Parliamentary powers to raise a loan of £325,000 in order to replace the misappropriated subscriptions to the original loan.