CORRUPTION IN WAR CONTRACTS.

Taihape Daily Times, 20 February 1918, Page 3

CORRUPTION IN WAR CONTRACTS.

AIRMAN RETURNS £38,000 COMMISSION,

BARRISTER FINED £6,000,

A sensational case came to a sudden end recently at the Old Bailey, London, when the charge was withdrawn against Lieutenant-Commander John Cyril Porte, R.N.A.S., and the other defendant, William A. Casson, a barrister, aged sixty-three, was ordered to pay fines amounting to £6,000. Defendants were charged with conspiring with reference to commissions on Admiralty aeroplane contracts. When the case came on, the Attor-ney-General said that he would offer a case of ''nolle prosequi’’ in the case of Porte. Porto, at the outbreak of the war, had unreservedly offered his services to the country, and was now suffering with a distressing and dangerous malady—hemorrhage of the lungs. He was dangerously ill. The Admiralty did not wish to be deprived of his services, as he was engaged in work of great national importance. Some £48,000 which Porte had received by these commissions, with the exception of £IO,OO0 —which he had disposed of —he would return. The judge, addressing Casson, said: "You have pleaded guilty to twelve offences. The crime of corruption is grave. It pollutes the individual, it saps the righteousness of the State. Honour, sacrifice, duty and integrity, are violated in the secret crime. You arc now in the winter of your life, and the burden of broken health has fallen upon you. You must realise that punishment for an offence against the law does not end with the uttered sentence of the judge. : : It reflects upon wife, children, and relatives. I order you to pay £SOO for each offence —£6000 in all —and the cost of the prosecution.” The judge ordered that all money received illegally in commissions should be handed back to the authorities. The Attorney-General said that the Crown realised that Casson had not the resources to pay such a large sum of money, The fine could be deducted from the amount received in commissions, and the balance handed back to the authorities. Casson, it was mentioned, had received £16,000 in "commissions.