Dream of Riches That Cost Him £136,000

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 80, 5 April 1938, Page 2

Dream of Riches That Cost Him £136,000

When 53-year-old William Fielder Johnson, friend of judges and famous lawyers, went to prison for seven years recently at the Old Bailey, tho amazing story of how ho robbed clients of £136,000 to try to make a fortune was revealed.

Johnson, pleaded guilty to three charges involving £12,000, and askud that 5 J 3 other cases involving £124,000 should be taken into consideration. As Mr. Justice Goddard passed sentence, he declared: “It is the worst case I have ever known. ... I hate having to pass sentence.’’ It was a craze for money-making that caused Johnson’s downfall. In 1908 he was admitted a solicitor. Four years later ho inherited a famous law busiThe next 25 years was the story tf hare-brained schemes and unwise speculation that cost a large fortune. A financial crash cost Johnson £lO,000. Then ho met a woman. Two breach of promise atcions she brought cost him £IO,OOO damages. In eight years he lost nearly £140,000. He bought big houses and converted them into flats. He paid women largesalaries to look after them. He had an idea to build an airship for advertising purposes. Ho dabbled with a non-puncture tyre. The woman who sued him for breach of promise, Rena Plumbly, of Lindon terrace, Notting Rill Gate, was at the Old Bailey as Johnson was sentenced. She saw him, lean and haggard, with head bowed, led below to tho cells. She will be waiting, seven years hence, to help him when he is freed. “I promised him that,” se said to a reporter afterwards. il I first met Johnson ton years ago. Ho was my lawyer when I was negotiating a mortgage on property I owned. “We became friends and, despite everything, when the crash came, I believe I was tho O-ly woman among all those he had known—and upon whom he had spent thousands of pounds—who visited him in Brixton gaol. “Bill did not spend wildly and recklessly. “Three times wo set off to the registrar’s office to be married. Once he walked out on me, the second time I walked out on him and the third time we parted because I had discovered that a woman was blackmailing him. “Tho breach case damages awarded me were given not only becauso of the actual breach of promise, but because of losses sustained through Bill’s negotiations of my financial affairs.”