SPLIT A CHEQUE

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 259, 28 July 1932, Page 9

SPLIT A CHEQUE

Swindell’s Explanation TIN HARE LICENSES Talk of “Double-Crossing” (By Telegraph.—-Presa Assn.—Copyright.) (Rec. July 27, 9.25 p.m.) Sydney, July 27. At the mechanical hare inquiry today, Frederick Swindell was further examined. He was asked for the reason for spii ting a £5OOO cheque into smaller cheques. ■ “To make five transactions, reducing the rate of taxation,” Mr. Swindell replied. Mr. Monahan, K.C., who is assisting the commission: Was it not to defraud the Tax Commissioner?

Mr. Swindell: No. The Royal Commissioner: Wasn’t the whole thing a fraud and a fake?

Mr. Swindell: No. The Commissioner: Then it is a matter of your standards. Mr. Swindell: The cheques were made out in others’ names. I got no profit. The Commissioner: You got £5OOO for scrip for which you paid nothing. Mr. Swindell: Yes, but it was only a small profit. The Commissioner: That is a matter for the Tax Commissioner.

' Mr. Swindell denied a portion of Mr. Felix Booth’s evidence that if a certain company were formed £7500 should be paid if it got a permit to hold coursing. Michael Gleeson,, a director of the Australian Coursing Club, explained his dealings with Mr. Swindell and the anxietv of various clubs to get licenses when mechanical coursing was restored. He declared that Mr. Swindell had, he believed, “double-crossed us.” The Commissioner: That word “double-crossed” apparently means that both parties were in a crooked business, and one afterwards went crooked on the other. Isn’t that the meaning? Witness: No. After the whole thing was legalised Mr. Swindell got our licenses from us. Therefore he doublecrossed his friends and pals.

The Commissioner: I must say that I don’t know anything in the English language so expressive as “doublecrossed,” or anything that corresponds with it. The hearing was adjourned.