Aston Used To Tear Up Banknotes, Witness Says

Northern Advocate, 17 February 1940, Page 6

Aston Used To Tear Up Banknotes, Witness Says

[Per Press Association. Copyright ]

WELLINGTON, This Day. Gordon Percy Aston had a bad habit . of tearing up £1 and £5 notes and throwing them about the bar, saia | William John Kyle, licensee of the Trafalgar Hotel, Nelson, in the Police Court yesterday. Kyie was a witness in the case in which Aston and Harvey Maitland Chrystall are charged with having conspired to defraud Roy Haitley Sellers of sums totalling £6765. He made a casual acquaintance with Aston about five years ago. Kyle said. Aston’s Habit of Tearing Up Notes. William John Kyle, licensee of the Trafalgar Hotel, Nelson, said he made a casual acquaintance with Aston five years ago. In December, 1937, he got to know Sellers and Chrystall. At the beginning of 1938 Aston mentioned that he was receiving money from the British Admiralty, but he gave no idea what it was for. Aston, he said, had a bad habit of tearing up £1 and £5 notes, and throwing them about the bar. ! Sellers frequently visited Nelson. 1 On several occasions he stayed at ! the hotel. Sellers always did what i Aston requested him to do. I Aston would sometimes say he was j going to telephone Sellers and ask him |to come to Nelson by air. On a numi ber of occasions, after Aston made i this remark, Sellers arrived the next i day. j Mr C. Purchase (for Aston) raised an objection to the evidence. Roll of Notes Worth £IOOO. On one occasion after Sellers had ] arrived, continued Kyle, Aston had a roll of notes which he said amounted to £IOOO. Fie recalled Aston saying the money had come from Sellers. : Aston usually paid the hotel bills for himself. Chrystall and whoever the party might be. Chrystall did not indulge in lavish ! spending. . j Robert Campbell, a shop proprietor, ;of Nelson, said that on one occasion j Aston had a roll of notes v 7 hich he ! started to count. Aston subsequently ] remarked that he was too busy, and at his request a boy counted the 1 n\oney, anc * said the total amounted ito £750. , „ i Aston later showed Campbell a draft and a cheque for £12,000 payable on a London bank. , | Aston said he was going to London !to collect this money. Aston and ,' Chrystall made no secret of the fact 1 that they were connected with the i British Government. j . “My Money He Tore Up.” I “Lots of times I saw Aston tearingup banknotes in the hotel bar,” said I Frederick James Clarke, porter and , ! barman, of Nelson. ■ i “Some were £5 notes, others were ■ 1 £ 1 notes, and some 10/- notes. ] “When he had done this, he just i' threw them on the floor, i j “On one of these occasions Sellers ! said: ‘That was my money he was i tearing up.’ Sellers would always • j do what he was told by Aston. , i lan Burns Cromb, of Christchurch, j managing-director of Cash Radio, . Southland, and Cash Radio, Westland, l said Aston had half-shares in both • j companies. ; Shortly after his first mealing with Aston in 1939, they had a conversation : in which Aston said he had a. “quad” - plant in Australia for the manufacture of steel plates in connection with l an invention for protecting ships from ; torpedo attacks. ; i Aston said he had to go to Australia frequently to instal this'plant i j and keep it running.

Said Sellers Had Quarter Share

He also said he would be paid £ 5C0,000 for the invention when the plant was completed and handed over in running order. On all steel handled, over £BO a ton was to be received. Aston said Chrystall was employed by him at a salary of £7OO a year. Cromb added that Aston also told him that Sellers had a quarter-share in the invention. Aston said Sellers had been allowed to buy some of Chrystall’s shareholdings in a company called Chromadyne, Ltd., and that this would never have taken place if he (Aston) had been in New Zealand at the time.