RACING MAN'S FRAUD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13453, 1 June 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

RACING MAN'S FRAUD.

«fr~_ HORSES NAME CHANGED TO DE- | CEIVE STEWARDS. : A case of great interest to racing men came'; before a London magistrate, on April 18, the jowner of a horse being sent to prison for three months for a curious fraud, ; Charles Lot Brass was summoned for having on October 10, 1906, attempted to ob-l tain £37 by false pretences from Messrs.' | Prate and Co., and for having, on August! 21 and other subsequent daks, conspired! Iwith Albert Chick to obtain by fraud large sums of money from stakeholders iu corniceition with horse-racing. There was also .i summons taken out; against Chick, for attempting to obtain £37 and for conspiracy with Brass, but- Chick! I bad since died, and that part of the case; was not gone into. I I Sir Charles Mathews, who prosecuted on! j behalf of the National Hunt Committee, j I said in ISO 6 Chick and Brass purchased a 'horse named Childwit, of which they Ikcame joint owners. As the horse had ran at! |" out meetings," it became disqualified .toj [run at meetings held under the rules of the National Hunt Committee. Chick and! Brass became desirous of running the horse! lat meetings held under the rules of the National Hunt Committee, and in order to do this changed the horse's uame to Welsh Knight to deceive the committee. It rani at seven meetings in the name of Welsh | Knight, winning three races, getting third in three of them, and being unplaced in one' of them. At Nottingham races, where the 'horse won, suspicion was aroused. Mr. j Whittaker, who rode another horse, lodged/ a complaint, and inquiries were made. ~ j i Chick and Brass, to disguise the matter, sent a horse to be sold at Aldridge's, St. Martin's Lane, which they pretended was ! Childwit, with the view of proving that Welsh Knight and Childwit were distinct horses. j After (lie matter had been investigated; by the National Hunt Committee, Brass was! warned off the course, and the present proceedings were instituted. . Subsequent toi the inquiry,, Brass made a statement, which; was sent to Messrs. Charles Russell and Co., solicitors to the National Hunt Committee. After admitting that he had changed the horse's name from Childwit to Welsh Knight, Brass continued: — "After she horse won the race at Not- ; tingham, on October 23, an objection was [made by the owner of the second horse,] and I was subsequently called upon to attend before the local stewards at Lincoln, and subsequently before the stewards of the) National Hunt Committee on two occasions lat Messrs. Weatherby's, In London. I now' frankly admit that what I stated before; the stewards was false, and that with a!" view of bolstering up my denial of the accusation made by the owner of the horse !i which ran second at Nottingham, I got Mr. I. Chick to write me a letter saying that at j' the time of the race at Nottingham, Child-! wit was in his stable at Chard, which, of < course, was a falsehood, as Childwit and ' Welsh Knight are the same horse. . . . I have acted throughout in the most misguided way. I never appreciated that Ij] was committing a criminal offence, but I ad- h mil that my vanity to be the owner of ah horse running under National Hunt rules,, prompted me to act in this absurd, ridi-1 culous way: and, in fact, I was not present on several occasions when the horse won, • and have not made a penny piece put of! the transaction, but am over £100 out of pocket. I can only deeply and sincerely j, regret that I did not take 'proper and sen" ■ sible advice in the matter, and frankly admit to the stewards the fault I have committed." , ■. The statement concluded with the addition that the real position was pointed out) to him by Mr. Arthur Newton, his solicitor,! and before he consulted that gentleman he telegraphed to Messrs. Pratt and Company., that he would not accept any of the stakes won by his horse at Cardiff, Keele Park, or Nottingham. He had. in fact, never received any of the stakes. He was in a dangerous state of health, having undergone two operations, one of them being for appendicitis. Mr. Denman said that a most deliberate , fraud, which had been* going on for months, ; had been planned arid carried out carefully. Defendant would have to go to prison for three months, but as he was in a delicate state of health he would not have to do hard , labour. . ■ ■■-.■•.