CAREER OF FRAUD

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 200, 21 May 1936, Page 5

CAREER OF FRAUD

Broker Sentenced To Hard Labour MAGISTRATE’S COURT Three charges of false pretence and two of theft were brought against Charles Gordon Maekessack, organising broker, aged -14, in the Magistrate’s Court, Wellington, yesterday. lie pleaded guilty. Mr. E. D. Mosley, S.M., who was on the bench, sentenced him to four months’ imprisonment with hard labour on each charge, the terms to be served concurrently. “This man set out on a deliberate career of fraud,” said the magistrate, in pronouncing sentence. Accused, represented by .Mr. C. 11. Arndt, was charged with obtaining £lO from Colin Alfred Boult. £5 from Alfred Spencer Poole and £lO from Poole, by false pretences; with stealing a certificate of shares worth £l5 from David Alexander Pickering, and with omitting to pay Augustus Tutt £l2/10/-. Sub-Insjiector C. E. Roach, who prosecuted, said that a block of land at Trentham, subdivided into building sites, had been mortgaged for £lOOO. The company had decided to realise on the mortgage. Mr. W. Gregory, land agent, was approached, and he suggested to accused that the latter should form a company to take over the mortgage. Maekessack approached Poole and represented that a company known as the Wellington Divisions Company had been formed. He obtained from him £5 and £lO as a deposit on a section. From Boult, to whom he represented that, he was an agent for W. Gregory and Co., he obtained £lO. When approached by the police, he admitted appropriating the money for his own use. The eases of Tutt and Pickering were concerned with transactions in shares.

Counsel submitted that, in the case of the land transactions the proposed company's papers were actually prepared and signed, so that it was just about to be registered. -Mr. Gregory, however, advised Maekessack not to make further sales as he was not a licensed land agent. That was why. in the case of Boult, he had described himself as agent for Gregory and Co. In the case of Poole he had every reason to believe that the company would be registered ami the transaction completed in the normal way. in which case ho would be entitled to the usual commission. In the other two cases, he had anticipated that th(> men would instruct him to put the money into other shares that he was holding. “I submit, that this man had considerable colour of right, for most of his actions,” said Mr. Arndt, Mentally Weak ■'We know this man is mentally weak; he's been discharged from a mental hospital,” said Sub-Inspector C. E. Roach, when Harry Adolphus Perham, labourer, aged 19, was charged with being a rogue and a vagabond. Perham was remanded until May 27, to enable him to be examined. When asked whether he wished to be tried by a jury or would consent to be dealt with summarily, Perham shook his head and said he did not know what was meant. "I’m his mother; he does not understand,” cried a • woman, suddenly jumping to her feet at the back of the court. She requested that her son should be given another chance. Other Cases “This man has already been sentenced by the Supreme Court to 18 months imprisonment on another charge,’ said Sub-Inspector C. E. Roach, when Thomas Barbour, labourer, aged 55. was charged with using indecent language in Lambton Quay and with stealing two fool-warmers, valued at 25/-, from Thomas Archibald Felton. Accused was convicted ami discharged. Charged with stealing scrap metal valued at 9/6 from Messrs. Hildreth

and Sons. Robert James, labourer, aged 21 was remanded until May 27. Bait was allowed in the sum 'of £2O, with one surety of £2O.