A SNARE
PEOPLE SOLD OWN MONEY
Mock auctions were described as a f, snare to stupid people” by Major Rawcy EU’iston, the Recorder at Yarmouth Quarter Sessions, .recently when Frank Cook,' aged 47, an auctioneer, pleaded guilty to obtaining money by false pretences. Mr., Gerald Dodson, prosecuting, said the false pretences were weU known as the mock auction fraud. A crowd was attracted into an auction room whore an auctioneer started operations, and it was a. curious law which allowed a- man, by taking out a licence, to deal with his audience in a way that could only be calculated to deceive.
Mr. Dodson explained how a £1 note was handed up for an article, whereupon the auctioneer would run up some other article to £1 and then, placing the original note on it, would ask the man or woman who had put it .down to give him £2 for the lot. People did not realise that they were being sold their’ own note till they went out and counted the contents of their purse.
Cook was bound over for two years on the charge of false pretences and found not guilty on a charge of obtaining money by means of a trick.
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Bibliographic details
Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11835, 4 January 1933, Page 3
Word Count
203A SNARE Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11835, 4 January 1933, Page 3
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