HOUSE SALE IRREGULAR

Grey River Argus, 8 January 1944, Page 8

HOUSE SALE IRREGULAR

PRISON FOR ESTATE AGENT SYDNEY, Dec. 24. . On a charge of having been knowingly concerned in receiving cash in excess of that agreed to by the Treasurer for the sale of a properly, Samuel Ames, aged 51, real estate agent, was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment with hard labour in Sydney. The case was heard before Mr Atkinson, S.M., in a Federal Special Court. Notice of appeal was lodged for Ames by Mr P. N. Roach. Donold Frederick Maddy, one of the owners of the property, a house at Fivedock, had been fined ' £lOO on a similar charge on November 17. It was alleged for the Federal At-torney-General, Dr H. V. Evatt, that Albert Leslie Brown, clerk, had negotiated with the Maddys, through Ames and another man. William Patterson Gunning, for the purchase of the propertv for £1495,- and th.at a deposit of £lOO was -md. A contract was signed on June 29. It was intimated to Brown that the Treasurer might not approve of the sale at £1495, in which case a new contract would have to be drawn up for the lower price, and a cash payment made through Ames for the difference between the two prices. The Treasurer refused (to sanction the sale at £1495, and fixed the price at £llB4. A second contract was then signed in September. Brown was stated to have been driven to the Maddys’ house bv Ames on. the night of September 7. and to have handed over £3ll cash in an envelope to 1 Mrs. Maddy. Shortly afterwards, two Federal peace off tiers arrived, and ascertained that the money had changed hands

Ames in evidence, said he was in Newcastle on September 4. the day on which it was alleged for the At-torney-General that he had arranged with Brown for the payment of the £3ll In cash. It was stated that Gunning had arranged to drive Brcwn out to see the Maddvs on September 7, but that he had subsequently become ill, and asked Ames by telephone to drive Brown.