SINGULAR CASE OF FRAUD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6811, 15 September 1883, Page 2 (Supplement)

SINGULAR CASE OF FRAUD.

Ose of the most singular cases of fraad and deception which has ever come to light will, it is hoped, shortly engage the attention of the law courts. Two engineers who have for the. last eight Or nine years carried On business in partnership in the neighbourhood of Broad-Street, and who had by skill and industry raised themselves to a : position of importance, havo lately taken more extended premises and added to their old trade that of ironfy.unding. jn this new branch th.sy have been obliged to enter fresh markets for the purchase of iron and other raw material, aud have experienced throughout a most unaccountable difficulty in obtainiug credit. At last, only a few days ago, one of therti discovered that the. cau-e of this was that the other partner bad a bill of sale on his private furniture. When i accused of acting unfairly to his partner in this way he indignantly denied it. "Oh, but, said bis informant, "I've seen it in StubbVs." When asked if he had signed a bill of sale on his goods, he repl'ed, with greatest surpri-e,' that he hadnot. Ho wever, the files of Kemp,; Stubbs,. and other trade circulars were duly searched, and it was discovered t?iat the goods of the partner who protested his innocence had been duly assigned to* a moneyleader for more than twelve months. Inquiries wore made., and it was found-that the bill of sale had been signed by the suspected partner's father-in-law, a worthless old man, who had dissipated a competency which had been left him in intemperate living, an l then persuaded his daughter to as-dsthiruiu obtaining au advance from the money-lender. He induced her to represent that he was her husband, and that the furniture belonged to hiin and to pay the weekly instalments, of the debtoutof the money allowed her for housekeeping by her husband. When the fraud Was found out the partner who had been accused learned that the bailiffs had been in hia house for unpaid instalments, that his rent was more than one quarter in arrear, and that altogether there was enough owing to absorb any extra profits he might make for some li.ttlj time to come. The father-in-law bolted as soon as he km-w of tho discovary. A writ has been taken out agiintt the money-lender, and the c.>se, which is looked forward to with great interest, will come on in a few days,— Birmingham Daily Mail.