CHARGE OF FRAUD

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 117, 14 November 1930, Page 9

CHARGE OF FRAUD

EXTRADITION ORDERED

MAX WHO WOULD MAKE PETROL SYDNEY, 13 th November. Gordon Crawford, aged 23 years, a chemist-, was ordered by the Magistrate, Mr. Perry, to be extradited to New Zealand, where a charge of having obtained £100 from Herbert Steadman, as agent for the New Zealand Petrol Company, by false pretences will be.heard.

On 31st October Crawford was taken into custody in Sydney on a warrant issued at Auckland on 9th October. The charge upon ■which he was arrested reads as follows: "At Auckland on 16th August, 1930, with intent to defraud, did obtain from .tho New Zealand Petrol Company, Limited, of Auckland, £100 by a certain false pretence; that he was selling to the company a certain formula and process for the manufacture of motor spirit, such formula and process being valueless." Crawford carried out experiments in New Zealand a few months ago, and it is stated that ho demonstrated how motor spirit could be made. A privatecompany was floated, and only a few were "in tho know;" However, the particulars leaked out, and the shares j began to soar. They were traded in j at high figures, with the result that the directors issued a warning to investors discouraging any such speculation. •