FINED £150,000

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 252, 21 July 1934, Page 18

FINED £150,000

One of the Dolly Sisters

Miss Jenny Dolly, one of the famous Dolly Sisters,' was fined 11.470,485 franes (about £150,000 at current rates) by the Correctional Court of Paris recently for evasion of luxury 'tax on a diamondi ring.. The ring was worth £53,300. and was sold at auction recently with other Dolly jewels.The French International Revenue Bureau accused. Miss Dolly of not actually exporting the ring—in which case she would be absolved on the luxury' tax (on the purchase—but of merely sending it to London for a while and later smuggling if back into France. v

This ring was bought at Canties. It was sold on the understanding that it was for exportation, and therefore exempt frbm luxury taxation. Miss Dolly was said to have worn the ting, however, for three or four months on the Riviera. A Paris jeweller then sent it to his firm’s address in London. With the diamond was sent half of a visiting card, and the London claimant was to present the other half of the card to reclaim the ring.

This was done, and the ring was returned to France.

Miss Dolly, when asked about the transaction, alleged that it was carried out by her secretary. At a recent auction of the Dolly jewels in Paris the gems brought only about a fifth of their original cost.