SOLICITOR SENTENCED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12931, 29 July 1905, Page 2 (Supplement)

SOLICITOR SENTENCED.

MRS. BROWN-POTTER AND HER SAVOY SEASON. : "You have apparently made away with "'r these large sums of money simply out of ' desire to benefit these theatrical ventures / ' C in which you take an interest. It is just as : - wrong on your part as it would have been to pay the money away on horseracing. J sympathise with you, but I also have to sympathise with thousands standing in - ;f your position trusted as you were trusted." So said the judge at the Berks Assizes ' in passing sentence of five years' penal ser-'vfl§£ vitude oil Alfred Fossick, solicitor,* of Maidenhead, who pleaded guilty of m'isap. F propriating trust money to the amount of £12,000. c. Mr. Snagge, having outlined the factsMr. Powell made an appeal for mercy! The accused had been in business siuce 1838, first at Breconshire, and since 1893 at Maidenhead, where he was very much trusted. < . ■ In 1902 he became solicitor to Mrs. " Brown-Potter, and in 1904, added counsel' . I lent her large sums of money in connection •' • ; | with the Savoy Theatre, simply on her' promise to pay him back. : -J] lie admitted that the transaction was a ""J most unbusinesslike one, but having got I; into the slough lie was lured on and on and ' got deeper and deeper, and the venture' /I proving a financial failure he became a '-•! ruined man, both socially, professionally : /',i and financially. . , ' '■".p. l Mr. Spokes asked to be allowed to make ■ ■ a statement on behalf of Mrs. Browne- \| Potter. She was absolutely innocent of I the matter, and would have been prepared - I to go into the box and give her statement. - \ \ The judge said he could make no excep- - ' tion in the case of Mrs. Brown-Potter. The prosecution or defending counsel had made no charge against her of inciting the defen- ' dant, or of any other character. He Iff simply acted as her solicitor, and provided . her with funds which she was usin* in her H'U theatrical business. • ° . i;!