GEORGE SWANN SENTENCED.

Otago Witness, Issue 3805, 15 February 1927, Page 23

GEORGE SWANN SENTENCED.

THREE YEARS* HARD LABOUR. The final stage of the case in which George Thomson S'.vann was charged with obtaining money under false pretences was reached at the Supreme Court on Friday morning when his Honor Mr Justice Reed sentenced accused to three years’ hard labour. The charges against Swann were that between March, 1924, and March, 1925, at Dunedin and Beaumont, > with intent to defraud, ffe received sums of money ‘rom four different persons, by representing thai he was dealing in second-hand machinery and that he was supplying machinery to the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition ; and that by investing money with him the investors would participate in the profits from the sale of the machinery. The sums Swann was alleged to have received were as follow: —£180 from Margaret Gibson, £292 from Elma Alice Crawford, £1953 from John James, and £630 from Mary Ann Hall. Accused was represented by Mr A. O. Hanlon and Mr G. T. Bay.lee. Mr Hanlon, in addressing the judge on behalf of accused, said that it had been alleged that the sum involved amounted to £20,000. Learned counsel had made

search of accused’s books and papers, but so far as he could ascertain nothing ap proaching that amount was involved. It might be £6OOO or £7OOO. Accused came to New Zealand as a youth of 16 in 1893, and later went into his sawmaking business. He withdraw from it in 1923 to enter another firm, but he returned to his former business as a working hand. It was about this time that he began to obtain small sums of money for investment, and he was led by the apparent,ease with which he obtained this money to gather in larger sums bv fraud. As n result he became The father gave evidence that when he took a can of milk from the son’s breakfast table the latter followed him “He caught me bv the throat and threw me on the floor. When he got tired of thumping me he caught me by the ears and thumped my head on the floor. He got a knife out of a- drawer and made two jabs at mv throat with it. When he heard my daughter returning with a neighbour he put the knife back in the draw. Then the neighbour came in and pulled him off 'me. If my son had another minute I don’t know what he might have done. He has assaulted me four times, in all, ind has jostled me about.” Witnes denied that he had annoyed his son. The Magistrate: It is only on account of accused’s epilepsy that I am prepared to treat him like this. An assault by a son on a father, particularly such an old man as this, cannot be tolerated for a moment. M'Donald was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence if called upon within 12 months, the conditions being that he resides away from his father’s house and doe-, not molest the old man in any way. He was ordered to pay witnesses’s expenses.