MUNITION AGENT

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 November 1938, Page 9

MUNITION AGENT

FINED £5OO.

LONDON, November 2.

Stocky, fifty-three-year-old Michael Dennis Corrigan, Mayfair man with an address in Park Lane, was fined the maximum penalty of £5OO at London Mansion House Police Court for causing a false Customs declaration to be made concerning the shipment of 550 cases of “goods which, in fact, were bricks and refuse.”

A Scotland Yard officer said that three passports held by Corrigan had been impounded, and that in 1930 he had been sentenced to five years’ imirisonment for a £29,000 fraudulent conversion of property. He claimed to be the agent of a foreign group lealing in foodstuffs and munitions. Mr B. M. Stephenson, prosecuting for the Customs, said: “Last March Corrigan entered’ into certain arrangements with a man called Chou Ting Hsu, a visitor at the Chinese Embassy, for the sale by Corrigan of a quantity of arms and ammunition to go to China. “The Chinese Embassy were not in any way concerned in this matter, although use had been made of their official notepaper and seal. ‘The matter was discussed at several interviews at Corrigan’s flat at Park Lane, and elsewhere, and at one of these interviews a man called Heinz came into the picture. Corrigan asked Heinz if he could put him in touch with a shipping company for the l shipment of 550 cases of merchandise to Marseilles. "Heinz got in touch with Mr Chambers, of Wingate and Johnson, Ltd., and introduced’ him to Corrigan and Chou. Corrigan booked space in several ships during March, 1938, but had to cancel it as the goods were not ready.

“On March 29 Corrigan wrote in the name of a man called Willing (whom ho had spoken of as his nominee) saying that the order had been altered,

and the consignment would consist of 550 cases of machine parts.’ “Meanwhile Corrigan had not been idle. He had asked a man called Milne, who is otherwise known as Len Myloski, and who is a director of the Universal Lamp Co., Ltd., of Great Eastern Street, 7.C., to pack 550 cases and send them to the docks for shipment.

“A co-director of Myloski’s named Joseph got in touch, with a man called Silverman and obtained the use of Silverman’s yard for the packing. “On March 31 and April 1 the 550 emplty cases were delivered to the order of the Universal Lamp Company, Ltd. Silverman then bought from contractors who were demolishing the Wesleyan Church in High Road, Tottenham, several loads of stone, which were delivered to the yard at West Road.

“The empty cases were filled with this stone and rubbish. They were shipped in the steamer Merkland which sailed from London on April 2 for IVJarseilles. ‘On March 30 Willing met Corrigan and Chou at his office at Southampton Street and received from them an invoice, which appears to be on Chinese Embassy notepaper, for 550 cases described as containing Madsen antitank guns and cartridges. “Willing paid Corrigan £5250 on account, and Corrigan gave him a receipt which was signed’ by Chou. Corrigan then asked Willing for a copy of his sales invoice, as he would need it for Board of Tra.de statistical purposes.

"INVOICE STOLEN." “At the previous interview Chambers had told Corrigan he wanted an invoice for the goods for Customs purposes, and Corrigan had promised to supply one. On March 31 Chambers received an invoice by post. i “This invoice was on Willing’s headed notepaper. It purported to be signed by Willing, but Willing will say he has never seen it and has no knowledge of it. He can only asuine

that the invoice was stolen from his .7 office, because about that time he had . a burglary there. “An expert witness has compared the invoice with three letters which can be proved to have been signed by . Corrigan, and he is prepared to say that the three letters and the invoice which Willing denies all knowledge of were all typed on the same typewriter.

/The Merkland arrived at Marseilles on April 17, and at the request of a man called Lafitte, of the Societe des ; Armes, Willing went to Marseilles anti was present at the examination-of- a number of the cases when they, were found to contain rubbish. yy

“As a result Willing was placed under open arrest and it cost him £lOOO to regain his freedom.” . Mr W. Share, for the Universal Lamp. Company, said they had no knowledge of the nature of the transaction.

Corrigan paid £'.200 in Bank of England notes at once, and was allowed seven days to pay the remainder.