THE LIVERPOOL BANK FRAUDS

Otago Witness, Issue 2509, 16 April 1902, Page 46

THE LIVERPOOL BANK FRAUDS

The curtain ha 1 - recently been rung down on one of the most sensational embezzling 1 caae3 of modern time X , and the principal oft'^iiders penteneed to lrnro cr leis lengthy periods of imprisonment. The amount •tolen from th» bank totalled over 3160,000, but the gveatti part of this cum has bOen j.»-.».wivd to tl.e Lank.- ii>3Wt\ Gmidie, who embezzled the money, r<-eej\ed 10 years. Jiuij/e. who. it is repoi ted, cried bitterly v hen I>o ii<-.ird hi: sentence, a'so zeceiveci 10 yeai-b. ami Kelly and Stiles received two years- a-pieie. In commenting on the sc-n-tt.ic j , the London Kpcrt^maa says: — An i\j!pp!«iry sei:tene» \i.b pawed on Richard Burge for hi" connection with the Liverpool Rank fraudr-. and everybody will regret that Kelly and Stile* did not reeene their deserts. Two years' hard labour .6 a very lenieni FcntPuce for those two precious rascals, but it was the maximum term which the judge could impose under the indictment to which they had pleaded guilty. Unrge't- punishment is precisely the sam as that meted nut to Goudie. the bank ( 'f r\< who committed the forgeric,, and few pi.op!f will disagree with l.iv lordship V oritiioii that his crini"* was as great. H ami Mances in a most cowardly manner took achantage of Goudie' s position to intimidate him. and not only did they induce dim to rob the ba«k of enormous Bums, but they heartlessly cheated their unhappy infatrument. Many people who remember Hurge in his earlier days a-^ an honest professional pugilist will regret that he should have lost his standing in the boxing world and then drifted into the ranks of the disreputable hangers-on of the turf, such aa Stiles and Kelly, Manees arul Marks, whose claims to be bookmaker' and commission agents were an intuit to th^ members of an honourable profession, and vho-e devious courses h.i\e been so strikingly illustrated in the trial just completed at the Old Bailey. There was only one endintr to such a career, and though people who Htew the Burge of old may sympathise with him — and especially with his unhappy young wife — the general feeling will l<e that the turf world i» well ri'J, fo; a -hortcr or longer period, of a quartet of rogiifs who. fraudulently posing a^ "racing men," brought notl ing but dir-honour ami odium upon -port a iid '■portamen.