A BIG FRAUD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21920, 4 April 1933, Page 8

A BIG FRAUD

.MANY PEOPLE LOSE NEW ZEALAND VICTIM. (From Oub Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, March 23. Men professing big business connections seem to have been most successful in recent weeks in profiting by their fraudulent schemes. They have induced scores of people to invest their savings, mainly on the promise that they will provide a position in the imaginary concern for those who are foolish enough to part with their money. So many people have been out of work for so long that they grasp such an opening as a drowning man would clutch at a straw, and they have been left lamenting.

Many persons are anxious to renew the acquaintance of a man who evolved a plan to sell frocks and pickles. Among them are a widowed shopkeeper at Auckland and a number of young girls. An elderly man, unemployed for many years, told the police that in answer to a partnership advertisement he advanced tiie stranger £SO, He had been promised a position in a new factory about to be opened, and in the belief that he would at last secure work he handed over all the money he had left. Several others allege that they invested in the proposed company after receiving a definie promise of jobs. Some were told that the new company would open 14 stores in Australia and Now Zealand, and that the price at which the goods would be manufactured would secure a quick turnover and big profits. The man had discussed plans with a well known Sydney firm for the erection of 14 big electric signs. According to another story told to the police the imposter, was a recent arrival from Now Zealand. It was said that at Auckland he had met a widowed shopkeeper. He had proposed marriage, and she had advanced him £278 to start a business in Sydney. While the man was seeking shareholders, or partners as he preferred to call them, he opened a factory and employed a number of girls. Little work was done by any of the girls, and at the end of the week no pay was forthcoming. The police are now seeking to learn more about the fraud.