THREE YEARS GAOL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 58, 4 November 1914, Page 7

THREE YEARS GAOL.

A CHARGE OF CONSPIRACY. At tho last sitting of tho Tamworth (N.S.W.) Circuit Court, before Mr Justice Bring, Alfred Ashworth, Malcolm MTlae, and Trail; Eussell were charged with consp’racy, by means of which they obtained from various farmers, divers large quantities of chaff. Each of die accuseu pleaded not guilty. The facts of the case, as outlinedby the Crown Prosec uov. weie that the three accused and at least one other who was not on trial—had induced farmers in the district to send chaff to a bogus firm in Sydney, A. B. Lane and Co. Business cards and letter-heads were sent out, with fictitious addresses, and the film was never registered. Cards and letterheads intimated that the firm had premises at No. 11 Municipal Markets, Sydney; but as a matter o fact the firm had no such premises at all. They got the farmers in tho Tamworth district to send down chaff, which they bought at £4 per ton. The chaff, however, was sold at less than that price, and the farmers did not receive any money for the produce, and on September 2, 1913, an account was opened by Ashworth in tho Commercial Bank’, in King Street, Sydney, and about £IOO was paid in. Mick Brothers sold chaff to the firm of A. B. Lane and , Co., but could not get any satisfaction, and then Ashworth was arrested.

Considerable evidence was taken both for the prosecution and defence. The hearing extended over two days, and the jury, after being locked up for the night, found that the accused Ashworth was guilty of conspiracy with a man known by the name of A. B. Lane, but the jury could not agree as to the other two accused, M'Rae and Russell, who were bound over in their own recognisances of £SO each to appear at the next sitting of the Supreme Court at Tamworth.

His Honor said that the evidence in the case showed that the offence was an exceedingly bad one. Ashworth had not only entered into a conspiracy, but had also set about to defraud unfortunate farmers in the district. A man who behaved in that way was a menace to the-. community. No one could be safe while people acted as the prisoner had done. His Honor thought that the sentence he was about to pass was a lenient one, under the circumstances. The prisoner was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, with hard labor, at the Bathurst Gaol.