TITLED SMUGGLER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22100, 4 May 1935, Page 2 (Supplement)

TITLED SMUGGLER

hi;avy fine inflicted CASE OF FRENCH COUNTIES PLEA FOR LENIENCY FAILS 4 A fine of £IOOO, of which £250 had 11 to be paid at once and the remainder H within two months, was imposed at • Westminster, London, last month, on a French countess for evading Customs duties. The alternative was 51 days' ' imprisonment. She was Marie Olga, Comtesse de Rouge, aged 36, si French ■ citizen, whose address was given as at a Marble Arch hotel. She appeared on a summons in which the Commissioners of Inland Revenue sued for £3468 16s as treble the value and duty of goods brought, by her to Victoria Station. Mr. J. Wilson, prosecuting, said thaii| the value of the duty had been agreed at £3OOO. The defendant arrived at si Victoria Station on March 10 from|| Paris, rind among her luggage was a|| large trunk which was taken to the|| Customs offices. It wis full of wearing apparel, con«H sisting of dresses, jumpers and hats.s The Countess said that they had all been acquired abroad and were intended for her use during her stay in London. On that assurance she was allowed to take the trunk from the Customs without payment of any duty. It ivas subsequently found that her statement was false and made solely with the object of passing the goods through the Customs without payment of duty. Not Her Own Dresses Later she was seen at a hotel in the West End, an<J she again stated that the gocds were for her own use. She was asked if she had been selling anj of the goods, and she replied,, " Yes, but there is no objection to my selling my own property." The officem pointed out that the dresses appeared to be new, and she then admitted for the first time that the articles were the property of a firm in Paris, and that she had brought them to sell in England on a commission basis, on which she was to receive 5 per cent. She stated that she had sold about £SO worth of the goods. Mr. Walter Frampton, defending, said that it was not only an unusual but a very sad case, and simply teeming with mitigating circumstances. " The defendant," he sajd, "is the daughter of very distinguished parents, but like many distinguished, aud titled parents they have fallen's in circumstances. The father held positions under the French Government, Hut he has nothing now but a small pension, and he has a son a confirmed invalid. The Countess married in 1920, and her husband has suffered severely in the matter of finances. Sales Made in London " He was a bookseller, but owing to the depression in that trade he lost his employment, and for two or three years h&s bee:i out of work. There are two children, a boy of 13 and a girl of 10. The Countess found she was compelled to seek work herself. In March she obtained a post with Mrue. Franck, a Russian woman, tvho had a dressmaking business in Paris." On .March 10 Mme. Franck sent the defendant over to England for the first time, and gave her a list of people whom she might see at a West End hotel. She sold £SO worth, and the remainder would have beep taken back. The Magistrate: There is no way by which they could have got the:>e goods into thei country without paying the duty. Air. Frampton pleaded for & nominal penalty. The defendant, he said, waa only given her fare, and she was told that she must pay her own expenses out of any Kile. She only earned by her efforts io. that direction £2 10s.' That was all i she got out of it. Good a to the value of £750 were in the hands of the Customs, who could sell them. The real culprit, although she was noli there, had forfeited £750 worth of goods to the Customs.

The magistrate said that he could not help thinking that the defendant had derived some benefit, from her dealings with tho other woman. At any rate, the Cusloms had been badly treated.