AIR SCHOOL FRAUDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18565, 24 November 1923, Page 7 (Supplement)

AIR SCHOOL FRAUDS.

INVESTORS VICTIMISED.

" You have induced those poor fellows to part with their all, with promises •which were false and specious.. Now you must - pay," ' said Sir Herbert Nield, at the Middlesex Sessions in passing sentence of eighteen months' imprisonment 011 Alexander Fraser, aged thirty-four, an air pilot. Fraser appeared in answer to several indictments for obtaining money by false pretences. It was stated that accused professed to run a " School of Flying" at the Kingsbury Aerodrome, and later at Hondon. He possessed two aeroplanes, which were not paid for, and on the representation that the business was prosperous, coupled ■with promises of employment and interest on their money, he induced six men to invest sums which varied from £100 to £200 in the business. Hie men said that there was little work to do. Their wages were paid irregularly and their demands for the return of their money were unheeded. On July 6 an aeroplane which had been derelict was made air-worthy, and Fra-ser flew away in it, ostensibly to Henley for the regatta, but the police paid that he went to the south coast, and there the machine was damaged in landing. He was arrested at Shoreham.