SHARE PUSHER IMPRISONED

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 August 1936, Page 10

SHARE PUSHER IMPRISONED

MAN FAILED FOR £270,000.

LONDON, June 24

A man who was stated to have been a petty officer in the Navy, and who failed last year with liabilities of £270,000 and assets of £75, was sentenced to three years’ penal servitude at the Old Bailey yesterday for “bucket shop” activities. Ho was Charles William Dickinson, 53, stock and share dealer, of Bartonstreet, Barons Court. He pleaded guilty to five charges of. obtaining money by false pretences in connection with a “bucket shop” in Fenchurch-street. Mr. G. D. Roberts, prosecuting, said that Dickinson had been in business for 12 years as an outside stock and share dealer, and the prosecution alleged that jt had been fraudulent since 1933.

Among his victims were 220 women and 120 clergymen. Credulous persons forwarded sums ranging from £4O to £5OO. in the case of one man, who parted with all his savings. On paper he was said to have made a profit of £4,700, but he was reduced to destitution, and Dickinson gave him £5.

Mr. W. A. L. Raeburn, defending, said that Dickinson had left (he Navy with the highest character. He had 3,000 customers in his stock and share business, which was honestly conducted for some years. “The figures relating to his failure are enormous, but they are the result of persistent gambling,” he added. “This is a man who has been bitten by the vice of gambling apd became.a victim, not the master, of his vice.”