MIDLAND BANK CASE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19349, 9 December 1924, Page 7

MIDLAND BANK CASE

EVIDENCE AGAINST HOBBS. MAGISTRATE REFUSES BAIL. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, December 6. At the hearing of tho charges against Hobbs the bank officials gave evidence that an account was opened at the Kingsway branch of the Midland Bank on January 5, 1920, to tho credit of C. Robinson with a cheque for £160,000. Ihe fallowing day £130,000 in £IOOO notes was withdrawn, and the balance was subsequently drawn by cheques. An official of the Paris branch of the Anglo-South American Bank said that Arthur accompanied Newton on January y, 192 U and opened an account with 120,000 mBl notes. He could not say which man handed them in. They produced the notes jointly. Hobbs and Newton took the bank official to lunch, and afterwards returned to the bank where they interviewed the manager, who suggested an investment. While they were at lunch Newton said that Hobbs was a retired solicitor. Hobbs signed a. specimen signature card. The official produced a letter signed by Hobbs authorising the investment as advised. ’ The chief accountant of the AngloSouth American Bank stated that £40,000 worth of rentes was transferred from Hobbs to Arthur on February 6, 1920. Arthur’s stock account showed that he disposed of the rentes in November 1921. Sir E. Marshall-Hall said he had never been in a case before a magistrate when he had had fewer instructions. The magistrate, in refusing bail, said he could not forget that Hobbs was caught leaving the country with a large sum of money.—A. and N.Z. Cable.