TRAGIC ENDING

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 106, 31 October 1931, Page 13

TRAGIC ENDING

STOCKBROKER'S CAREER

FAME AND INFAMY

LONDON, 2t)th October. The romantic career of a 71-year-old ex-millionaire stockbroker, Sir Arthur Wheeler, was brought to a tragic close at the Leicester Assizes when he was found guilty on 21 counts of fraudulent conversion totalling £25,000. He received a year's imprisonment, and his partner, George Smith, was bound over for two years. The Judge said the gravest part of the punishment was the fact that Wheeler had been found guilty and "that here in this city you have stood in the dock to hear it." It is an irony of fate that, when the same Judge was at tho previous Leicester Assize, Wheeler, as DeputyLieutenant of the County, attended him to form tho Court and sat on the bench near the Judge. Wheeler rose from the position of junior clerk to a great fortune and won national fame and respect with an organisation the annual turnover of which was £10,000,000. It employed 240 clerks and dealt with 00,000 regular clients, circulating a list which totalled 500,000 addresses. The postal and printing bill exceeded £20,000 a month. Thousands of investors relied implicitly on the judgment of Wheeler, who was knighted for his services during the war.