SHARP PRACTICES

Evening Star, Issue 22956, 13 May 1938, Page 8

SHARP PRACTICES

COMPANY DIRECTOR'S OPERATIONS EIGHTEEN MONTHS’ REFORMATIVE DETENTION “ The operations of such companies are a very serious public nuisance, amounting almost to a scandal. People are canvassed for their savings, and very often induced*, to sell out their holdings for investments, as was done in this case,” declared Mr F. (B. Adams, the Crown Prosecutor, in the Supreme Court this morning, when Leonard Charles Young, managing director of Development and General Projects Ltd., appeared for sentence on three charges of theft—tho misappropriation of moneys .that were the proceeds of the sale of debentures in the Metropolitan Theatre Company. Mr Justice Kennedy, in sentencing Young to reformative detention for a period of 18 months, said that such persons were a real danger, to thrifty but inexperienced people. Young was represented by Mr O. G. Stevens, who remarked that it was a rather difficult ease to deal with. The accused was still a comparatively young man, and apparently had some ability. It was true that he had been before the court and admitted to probation when younger, but since then ho had not fallen foul of the law. These offences were unusual, and were not those of straight-out or deliberate theft. Young was apparently super-optimistic as regards the flotation of his company, and was, no doubt, tempted to act as he did in the hope that others as well as himself would benefit. He was not of a definitely dishonest type. Mr F. B. Adams, representing the Crown, suggested to the court that the crime was a grave one and that the case was scarcely one for leniency. “The accused may have kept clear ot tho law in recent years, but, whatever he has been in the past, the material in this trial showed that ho is now a rogue,” added Mr Adams. The Crown Prosecutor mentioned that the evidence at the trial might have created some doubt as to the precise part played by the witness Copland in these offences, but the police held the very definite view that Young was the man in control and that the offences of which he was convicted were the offences of Young himself. “ It does not seem to have troubled 1 vou that you misappropriated the money of a widow,” commented Mr Justice Kennedy, in addressing the prisoner. .