A VIVID IMAGINATION

Otago Witness, Issue 4085, 28 June 1932, Page 31

A VIVID IMAGINATION

STORY OF ATLANTIC FLIGHT CONVICTED OF FALSE PRETENCES. CHRISTCHURCH, June 24. A curious case was heard in the Magistrate’s Court this morning, when Royd Leslie Dixon, aged 24, a salesman, was charged with obtaining £lO from Eileen Jennings by falsely representing that he had undertaken to fly from Germany to America, that he had been guaranteed the use of a Junkers aeroplane, and that the full amount of money necessary for the venture had been deposited with his secretary. The accused was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence if called upon. Counsel said Dixon had been smitten with the desire to fly. The police said he had never be»n an aviator, though he had been aloft Chief-detective Carroll said that the accused got to know Miss Jennings m Wellington, and represented himself <o be “ Lieutenant ” Dixon, an aviator, and declared that arrangements had been made for a flight from Germany to America, for which he had all of the £5200 required, except £B5. Miss Jennings had been induced to part with £lO. Dixon was not an aviator Ge had further represented that something in the nature of a company was running the venture, and that ne had a private secretary. A report had been prepared by Dixon which showed that lie bad a wonderful imagination, the report stated that the copyright ,» rhe flight story had been sold to a aes«paper. The accused was not an aviator, but had apparently hit on a plan of helping himself along tn hard times. Recently he had been employed <eliing magazines.

Counsel for the defence said that the accused had become fascinated by the doings of aviators during and after the war. He seemed to have developed a very keen aviation sense. He Lad not received any sympathy at home, and had got in touch with Admiral Byrd and Sir Douglas Mawson, from whom he had received encouraging ietteis. Dixon had begun to study, and had gained a lieutenant’s groundwork cert’fieate. He could not obtain a pilot’s certificate because of lack of money. He had flights in Sydney, and had watched operations at the Mascot aerodrome, and had been an observer <n the air search for the Southern Cross The accused had been genuinely keen on aviation, and had even lectured on aeronautics. Counsel added that there was nothing vicious in Dixon’s makeup. It was a case of “ vaulting ambition ” that had rather overleapt ’tself. The trouble had been due to a romantic and boyish imagination.