DUKE GAOLED

Grey River Argus, 13 May 1935, Page 6

DUKE GAOLED

FALSE PRETENCES In Pawning Jewellery (Aus. and N.Z. Cable Assn.) LONDON, May Iff. The Duke of Manchester was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment on two charges of false pretences. The prosecution alleged that the Duke obtained sums of £4OO, £2OO and £5O by pawning jewellery and falsely representing that it belonged to him. The jewellery and. heirlooms were left by his mother on trust, by whic'h it could be lent to the Duke’s first and second wives. Sir Henry Curtis-Bennett for the defence declared that Mr T. 3.1. Sutton •.? executors initiated the prosecution two years after the t awning. Tic Dike of Manchester gave ev L once em phatically denying any indention to defraud. He declared that he was prepared now to redeem the jewels and pay the m’O’.ist He b*. wed to tie judge when he was sentenced, betraying no emotion. Warders took the Duke of Manchester in a taxi-cab to Wormwood Scrubbs Prison, where the usual routine was observed. His belongings were inventoried and wrapped in a parcel. He then underwent medical examination and had a bath. Afterwards he was handed a mug, prayer book and Bible and locked in hiy cell. The Duke of Manchester was arrested on March 18th and charged with obtaining £650 by false pretences in 1933 from Thomas Sutton, wealthy London pawnbroker and jeweller, and his manager, Walter Lawloq, both of whom are dead. The Duke succeeded to the title in 1892 ( when the family estates were 70,000 acres. He was bankrupt in 1900, when his liabilities amounted to £30,170 and his assets to £7 600, and again in 1916. In 19'00 he paid a composition of 12s 6d in the pound, and the receiving order was rescinded and the bankrupt annulled. There bad been no surplus from the settled estates since he. succeeded to the title. He was Tiependent until his mother’s death on a voluntary allow- , ance from her which averaged £4400 a year, and in addition his father-in-law. iMr Zimmerman, made the duchess an I allowance which varied from £3.800 to £1.5,000 a year. The Duke since 1909 has been dependent entirely on a voluntary allowance from the trustees of his mother’s will. He has been interested in a new cure for consumption, which he financed to the extent of £ll,OOO. He and others in 1914 promoted .'in American company of which he -was a director, to supply cinemato graphs and films to annual subscribers for educational purposes. lie lost £l2OO in connection with that, lie has been at intervals since Augus't, 1910, a director of two aeroplane companies and a. motor-lorry company. In 1916 lie attributed his insolvency mainly to his expenses having exceeded his income, to heavy interest on borrowed money, and to the failure in 1913 of one of the American trustees of his mother. The official receiver reported that the liabilities amounted to £129,656, and that the only asset disclosed was jewellery of the estimated value of £2OO, which realised £9O. The trustee had reported that he had recovered, under an agreement sanctioned by the committee of inspection and the Zimmerman (trustees, sums aggregl- - £9923, making the total assets £10.013, that a dividend of a shilling in the pound had been paid, and that a further dividend of 6d or 6nd in the pound would probably be paid.