"WASTED YEARS"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 151, 23 December 1938, Page 15

"WASTED YEARS"

DISBARRED BARRISTER

BANKRUPTCY EXAMINATION

(By Atr Mail, trom 'The Post's" London Representative.) LONDON, December X Brought to the London Bankruptcy Court in charge of warders, Frederick de Verteuil, disbarred barrister, attended his public examination in bankruptcy before Mr. Deputy Registrar Mellor. His statement of affairs showed liabilities of £3649 and no assets.. Replying to Mr. L. A. West, Senior Official Receiver, de Verteuil said that he was called to the Bar in 1909, and1* practised successfully until 1920 in India. He returned to England because oi his* children's health and education. He was solvent, and received an allowance from his father. He was made bankrupt in December, 1926, with liabilities of £1236, and a dividend of 9d in the £ was paid. He had not applied for his discharge. From 1927 to 1931 he was engaged in literary work, and he then returned to the Bar. One of his novels was "really successful." He was disbarred in January last. Criminal proceedings followed, and he was sentenced to five years' penal servitude. Since he was disbarred he wrote "Fifty Wasted Years," and assigned the royalties. For a certain period he and another man, named Kent, received information from a trainer of horses. "I started with £25. We had 12 or 13 bets, and we only lost twice. The information eventually stopped, and I made £1000." A MISSING £6000. Mr. West asked if he could account for the £6000 which a jury had found that he received. De Verteuil replied that it was monstrous to suggest that he ever received it. It was a physical impossibility. Mr. Registrar Mellor: You appreciate that the jury found that you did?— Of course, everybody knows that. He added: "The case against me at the beginning was that I had this money. That was a statement made by a man,! befriended for six months, who was a direct descendant of Judas Iscariot." He could give no other explanation except that he did not get the £6000. There was some extravagance m household expenses. He had hoped to get a large sum for an autobiography, and there was a series of manuscripts which had never been placed. There was a .sensational account of his life, to appear after the trial, for which he was told he might get two of three thousand pounds. He was anxious to trace a number of manuscripts which had been "thrown all over the place." His father died 18 months ago in the "West Indies. His brother, in Trinidad, was managing an -state which used to yield a large income, and in which he had a. sixth share. At the moment it was not worth a penny. The examination" was concluded.