WOMAN BANKRUPT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21098, 4 February 1932, Page 13

WOMAN BANKRUPT.

PROPERTY NOT DISCLOSED. REMANDED FOR SENTENCE, FRAUD CHARGES DISMISSED. [from our own connr.sroNDKNT.] HAM I LT(>N T , Wednesday. An unusual series of cases came before Mr. Wyverri Wilson, S.M., in the Hamilton Police Court to-day, when a middleaged woman, Alma Olga Rodell Wilson Terrill, was charged with obtaining money by means of false pretences, and with breaches of the Bankruptcy Act. Two of the charges were dismissed, one was withdrawn, and on one, that, of failing to disclose her property to the official assignee, she was remanded until Friday for sentence. In connection with a charge against accused of obtaining £99 2s 6d by representing that she was a woman of considerable means, Robert Clinton Hughes, a New Plymouth solicitor, said that 011 May 30, 1950, he was called to accused's bedside in New Plymouth and was asked to prepare a will. Accused gave tietails of property valued at £27,000 which she said she possessed. He advanced accused £99 2s 6d for (he purpose of paying an Auckland legal firm's account and releasing documents relating to a. property owned by accused at Tc Kauwhata. Witness had mado no inquiries to ascertain the truth of accused's representations. Investigation Into Affairs. The acting-official assignee nt Hamilton, George William Brown, stated that accused was adjudicated bankrupt on January 30, 1931. A great deal of investigation and inquiry had been made as to Mrs. Terrill's property, and it was ascertained that she owned two pieces of land at Te Kauwhata, both of which were subject to mortgages. Witness also learned that she owned two freehold properties and one leasehold property and a shop in New Plymouth. Prior to her bankruptcy there was a sale of her assets at Te Kauwhata. and the proceeds, £l6O, were handed to the official assignee. The liabilities in her estate represented claims for £3OOO.

The magistrate said Mr. Hughes was a very old man, who was hard of hearing. The accused had represented that she was a woman of means, and the evidence did not disclose that she was not a woman of means. The information was dismissed. A second charge of obtaining £l5O from Grace Cobb by false pretences was withdrawn. No Case to Answer. "I do not think there is a case which the accused is called upon to" answer," said the magistrate, referring to a count in which the accused was charged with contracting a debt with the Sawmillers' Timber Trading Company for £79 Is lOd without having reasonable expectation of being able to pay the amount. Giving evidence relating to the charco of failing to disclose her property to the official assignee, the acting-official assignee said defendant was adjudicated bankrupt on January 30. 1931. A meeting of creditors was called for February 12. and a registered notice was sent to bankrupt at Te Kauwhata requesting her to attend. The notice was returned unclaimed. Defendant. had not at any time disclosed her property to the official assignee. The properties held by bankrupt were abandoned to the mortgagees. The magistrate said 11 months after the bankruptev the accused was found. She had not done what the law required. Accused said she had spent, most of the time in hospital. She hoped to be able to pay all her just debts. The magistrate, in remanding accused for sentence, asked that the probation officer submit a report.