CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19197, 10 December 1925, Page 11

CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD.

STRANGE ENGLISH CASE. GRANDSONS IN THE DOCK. KIDNAPPING OF AGED MAN. By Telegraph.—Pres3 Association.—Copyright, (Received 5.5 p.m.) A. and N.Z. LONDON, Dec. 8. Further evidence has been heard in the case in which Thomas Williams and Geoffrey and Charles Arden are charged with conspiracy to defraud Douglas Arden of moneys and securities. The accused Ardens are grandsons of Douglas Arden, who is over 80 years of ageMrs. Dorothy Short, daughter of Douglas Arden, said.her father's memory was failing rapidly. Ho could not remember the day's events at evening. She could not say how wealthy her lather was, but she thought he had inherited £•150,000 from his father. Witness' brother, who was the father of the accused grandsons, went to Australia after leaving Oxford and married a daughter of Sir James Martin, then Chief Justice of New South Wales. After their father's deatli the grandfather paid for the education of his two grandsons and allowed them £3OO a year and their keep. Since 1921 each grandson had been allowed £4 a week. Defending counsel said the defence was that the kidnapping had been carried out for the purpose of forcing the appointment of a receiver to protect the interests of the grandsons. A cablegram from London published on December 3 stated that at the opening of the case the prosecuting counsel told an extraordinary story. He said the accused Ardens, aided by Williams, kidnapped their grandfather, aged 81 years, in a London street, and drove him in a taxicab to the Gloucester Gate, where he put his signature to 11 bills for £SOOO each. Counsel explained that there had been some discussion as to the appointment of a receiver under the Lunacy Act, which- was dona in November. Knowing this the grandsons hatched an ingenious plot by which they offered to sell their grandfather a collection of pictures valued at ,£50,000. When he went out under the. charge of an aged coachman they induced the lattei to 'go to a bogus address. While he was absent they drove off with tho old man.