FOUND GUILTY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11223, 31 May 1922, Page 5

FOUND GUILTY

BOTTOMLEY CASE ENDS SENTENCED TO SEVEN TEAKS’ IMPRISONMENT. SERIES OF HEARTLESS FRAUDS Br Toleeraph.—Press Assn.-'-Copyright. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. LONDON, May 29. Horatio Bottomley, found guilty ol misdemeanour in dealing with tho funds of .the Victory Bond Clulj, was sentenced to penal servitude for seven years. Air Justice Salter, in summing up, advised the jury not to consider whether Bottomloy was patriotic, whether he had done much for his country, or in pursuit cf private gain. If the jury' was convinced that ho did dishonest things, it should convict There was no excuse for Bottomley to say he would make restitution Referring to the evidence that the counterfoils of hooks ivero used in connection with certificates issued, the Judge asked: “Whore are the counterfoils? This is not the case of an uneducated person who had a few pounds entrusted -to him and got into a muddle. It is a case cf an able and efficient business man, who received important sums of money from people who trusted him, a man who appreciates, like any business man in London, the importance of correct accounts.” Any honest account, however kept, would have rendered it impossible for Bottomley to appropriate great sums without immediate detection. Tho thing had to come to light through the Bigland proceedings. The Judge raid tho charge of appropriating £57,000. drawn for the purpose of buying newspapers, was the most important transaction embraced by the charges. At that time the club did not owe Bottomley any money, yot when hs did not succeed in borrowing £100,01.. from the bank in the club’s name, he raised it through a solicitor, by means of the bonds. The money he used to buy the newspapers.

ACCUSED UNMOVED

SUBSEQUENTLY COLLAPSES. Renter’s Telegram. LONDON, May 29. Crowds outside and inside the Old Bailey waited the conclusion of the Bottomley trial. Bottomley, at the outset, sat at the solicitor’s table, hut at tho termination of the prosecutor’s speech, he rose and said, “I will now go to the pljace where an accused person usually goes,” and entered the dock. Bottomley was unmoved by the verdict, exoept that his face flushed. Ho commenced questioning the judge, and when he was told that it was unusual to allow prisoners in oases of misdemeanour to' speak before they were sentenoed, lie retorted scornfully, “Had it been so, I should have had something rather offensive to gay about your summing up.” Subsequently Bottomley collapsed. The crowd was excited and astonished at the severity of the sentence.

ROBBED THE POOR

STRONG REMARKS BY JUDGE. (Received Slay 30, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, May 29. After the jury had returned a verdict in the Bottomley case, the judge said to Bottomley: “You have been rightly convicted of a long series of heartless frauds. These poor people trusted you. You robbed them of £150,000. The crime is aggravated by your high position; by the number and poverty of your victims; by the trust they reposed in yon; by the magnitude of your frauds and the callous effrontery with which your frauds were committed.”

Bottomley heard the sentence unmoved, but acclamations arose throughout the oourt. When -order was restored Bottomley asked whether he could consult his solicitors regarding an immediate notice of appeal. The judge: “Certainly.”

MOTION FOR EXPULSION

COMMONS AWAIT APPEAL RESULT. (Received May 30, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, May 29. The House of Commons will take no action against Bottomley until his appeal has been heard. If it is unsuccessful the Government will submit a motion of expulsion. In a case of felony membership automatically lapses, but the House must consider the circumstances in a case of misdemeanour.

NEWSPAPERS’ APPROVAL

ABLEST'LAWYERS’ ENERGIES TAXED. (Received May 30, 7.55 p.m.) LONDON, May 30. The London newspapers generally approve of the sentence imposed on Bottomley. The “Daily News” says: “It taxed the energies Wf the ablest lawyers and publicists to brine him to book. The public owes a debt of gratitude to those who did not relax their determination to expose him.”

CHARGES RECALLED

VICTORY BONDS CLUB FRAUDS. The charges against Horatio Bottomley covered over twenty . counts of fraud, aggregating more than £200,000. They arose out of his failure to account properly for contributions to his “Victory Bonds Club,” and the prosecution alleged that ho had deliberately planned to steal £IOO,OOO be longing to the club. Bottomley, who, as on other occasions, conducted hie own case, made a great parade of hip patriotism. At the hearing that resulted in his committal lie said that, realising a new awakening during the tragedy of Armageddon, lie consecrated himself to the service of the country, and became the King’s chief recruiting agent. He stood by the boys in the trendies. It was ineonoeivabio that a jury would convict him of robbing them" and their families. “If so. may tile tortures of the damned bo

visited on my soul when I pass the Barrier.” Bottomley received altogether about half a million in sub.-orij! tions to the club, and pun-nased Government bonds. These he used id various ways as security for loans and overdrafts. Tho Bigland proceedings out of which the charges of fraud grew were allegations that Reuben Bigland had incited certain persons to extort money from Bottomley. Bigland, who was acquitted, admitted having been associated with Bottomley in improper transactions, including a swindle in war stocks, and described a “frameup” against a third man, who was prosecuted for libelling Bottomley.. The libel, which was printed by Bigland, resulted in a verdict for £SOO for Bottom ley.