HALF A MILLION LOST.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9981, 11 July 1925, Page 2

HALF A MILLION LOST.

r “ON THE VERGE OF DEATH’’

MAN HELPLESS IN DOCK

Transactions which involved a. loss of £600,000 by a London syndicate, and which were followed by the physical and mental breakdown of the principal—a Lloyds underwriter—were mentioned at the Old Bailey lately. Stanley Bruce Knowles Harrison, aged 44, a former member of Lloyds, was bound over after pleading guilty to the fraudulent conversion of a cheque for £613. Mr Justice Roche said"that but for the man’s physical and mental condition he would have sentenced him to six or nine months’ imprisonment in the second division. Harrison collapsed into a chair on entering the dock, and was unable to articulate on being called upon to plead. Throughout the case he was trembling violently, and when it was over he had to. be helped out of the dock. Mr Travers’ Humphreys, prosecuting on behalf of the Committee of Lloyds, said it was the first time the committee had put into force the powers to prosecute granted them by a private Act bf Parliament. Harrison, with other persons, started a series of speculations and became involved in an enormous amount. When the crash came in October, 1923, the per sons forming the syndicate were found to be liable for over half a million pounds on policies issued in their guaranteeing bills c. exchange. Of that half-mißion over '.‘400,000 repre. sented accommodation bills. Harrison, said counsel, kept a double set of books. One set he showed to the chartered accountant, the ether set he did not disclose Sir Edward Marshall Hall, for the" defence, said Harrison had been on the verge of death. At one time he had had a “colossal business.” Then there sprang up a form of reinsurance of an extraordinary character, which, though perfectly legitimate, opened th'i door to fraud. This was in connection with motor-cars sold under hire-purchase agreements. Now he had not a farthing, and was absolutely ruined.