Brazen Fraud

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 105, 5 May 1937, Page 10

Brazen Fraud

BEST FRIEND SWINDLED "He wanted'to bo tho big fellow.” As he was led away recently from the dock at the Old Bailey to serve a sentence of threo years’ penal servitude a convict among convicts—a man of 56, looked upon by his host of friends as solid, dependable, wealthy, had the above police description of himself ringing in his ears. He is James Henry Thornburn, textile agent, and his home was a trim villa in Haynes Park, London, S.W. A liveried chauffeur drove his car. Ho was an official of the church he attended. Met at Church But Thornburn’s life was a sham. For years he had been swindling his best friend, Mr William Graham, now 73, a tailor. Mr Graham was an office-bearer at the same church as Thornburn. They met at the church in 1919 or 1920. They became very friendly. In 1927 Mr Graham agreed to fianance Thornburn in a textile export business. He did not wish to share tho profits. From time to time Thornburn showed fictitious invoices and shipping notea He said the business was flourishing. In truth there was no business. In all, Mr Graham paid over to Thornburn more than £63,000. He received in return £52,000 odd, which purported to be money obtainod in the business. Mr Graham actually lost £10,867. Others were defrauded in a similar way. This was the story outlined to the Common Serjeant, Mr Cecil Whiteley, by Mr L. A. Byrne, who prosecuted. Thornburn was charged with inducing Mr Graham to sign cheques for £6774 by false pretences. He pleaded "Guilty,** and asked that 51 other offences should be taken into consideration. He admitted he robbed Mr Graham over a period of ten years, and that for a time he lived by his frauds at the rate of £2OOO a year. Actually; according to Detoctive-Inspector R. Fabian, he was earning £9O a year. “Thornburn has regularly attended church,” added the officer. "He has always been a centre of attraction, and always wanted to bo the big fellow. "He has one previous conviction. Ho was sentenced to three months in tho second divison at Bradford in 1917 for stealing cloth. "He has no vices such, as drinking or gambling. Mrs Thornburn is an invalid.” The inspector added that Mr Graham

had lost all his savings. But for an extraordinary rise in securities, he would have been bankrupt. "Your Money to Live” Shortly before his arrest, Thornburn walked into the sea at Blackpood intent on suicide. The attempt failed, but he left a note for Mr Graham, his friend; t ‘I am at the end of my tether—my life of fraud. I am a rotter ... I enjoyed too good a life. "I have used your money to live. “I (have lived at the rate of £2OOO a year or more; spent it; I have not one penny hiden anywhere. "I have entertained largely—opera, theatre, dinners at the best hotels—these last two years.o Mr G. Gillis, for Thornburn, said that Thornburn’s sou was a public schoolmaster, and not one penny of the money had gone to him, innocently or otherwise. Passing sentence as stated, Mr Whiteley said: "You defrauded your greatest friend. As a deterrent to others it is my duty to send you to penal servitude.” Thornburn, a man with greying hair, neatly dressed in a suit of dark grey, walked slowly from the dock with bowed head.