FALSE PRETENCE DENIED

Taranaki Daily News, 5 December 1930, Page 9

FALSE PRETENCE DENIED

AUCKLAND INVENTOR’S CLAIM DISAPPEARANCE OF DOCUMENTS. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. Claims' of an inventor ,to have. manu< factored synthetic motor spirit and his dealings with a company floated in Auckland formed the basis of a case in the Police Court to-day when Gordon Dugald. .Crawford, aged 23, was charged with obtaining £lOO from, Herbert.. Allan."Steadman; Auckland, as for the New Zealand'Petrol Company, Ltd., by false pretence by selling to the company, it certain formula and a process .which, were valueless. There were further charges of obtaining £25 from the company by , falsely pretending that he could manufacture substitute benzine, of obtaining £lOO in the same manner, and of stealing £2’-, the property of the- company. Steadman said Crawford claimed to be the inventor of a formula for making petrol or motor spirit from chemicaTs. Crawford arranged to sell the formula to‘the New Zealand Petrol Company ■ and entered into an agreement with it. The company eventually agreed to purchase the formula. Steadman said that on August 16 it was arranged that the formula should be, written out and £2OO paid to the vendors, Crawford and his uncle. ■ '• ' . , The' formula was secretly written out by Crawford, sealed in ah envelope and deposited , in a bank. Subsequently Crawford received money from the company to purchase the ingredients tomake experiments. Later Crawford said he had received a. threatening letter and had been followed.,

The lettef, which was written on a telegraph form in block letters, was then produced in! icourt. . It' read:'/L you go through with' this demonstration, .you will-,not 1 live 24:houts/after., Steadman then described a demonstration by' Crawford which" was a complete failure, Crawford sayin'g he did not have the correct apparatus. ', •Later Steadman obtained the formula from the bank. Its contents were: “The formula is concealed on the property of . Wi' iH; ■ 'Soppett, ‘ Hunua, and the plate is known only to me. When I wrote it out I neglected: to estate one important thing—as each and every ingredient is being transferred from the test tube to the container the person , -ing it must count from one to ten; this js very important. I have, done this in the interests of the company as I consider the formula is very much safer where it. in than in the hands of any .individual or individuals. I feel sure the 'company will appreciate- what I have dohe. .-■ . i . . ■ . 7 “There were no chemicals or ingredients mentioned in the formula ” continued Steadman, w'ho ’ said a suitcase was opened at a directors’, meeting on October. 9 and found to contain p, number of four-ounce bottles with liquid in them, which looked like potassium per‘mangate solution. -// Steadman said on' July 16. Crawford gave an unsuccessful demonstration but another on the following day was successful. He .produced about two-thirds of two quarts of what appeared to be motor spirit. . He carried t>'ut this demonstration alone and no one saw what he was doing. "

BROUGHT BACK FROM SYDNEY.

’ Kenneth Massey Griffin, Government analyst at Auckland, stated onNbvem•foer 19 he had received jars for analysis and on making an analysis of the ingredients of each of the jars he found the liquid was a solution of potassium permanganate in water, known as iCondy’s fluid. The value of the materials in the six jars was twopence'. Acting-Detective Moore said he left Auckland on November 4 to escort Crawford back from Sydney. The officer took, a deposition made in Auckland, the envelope containing the; formula and the agreement between the company, Crawford and his uncle. Witness left Sydney with accused on'the Niagara , on' November 13. . The documents were kept, ■in an envelope in■ his-, suitcase in the cabin. On the return journey witness found the documerfte were missing. He and accused occupied the cabin. No-other person' on the ship knew he had the -papers. Detective Nalder, said as a result of a complain that Crawford was .. beiijg followed by a strange man into various shops in the suburbs while he -was obtaining'certain ingredients he questioned Crawford, who showed a great deal of hesitation about going .into details. Ha said all that had happened was that ■twice when he was in Dominion Road he had seen a man watching him. Nothing further was done until Crawford reported receipt of an anonymous letter threatening hi.s life; Witness questioned Crawford with respect to the threatening letter and Crawford admitted he had written.and.posted the letter to himself. He said he had ’sent it because he had been threatened by some other person and he desired to obtain police protection.

■ Chief-Detective Hammond said he showed Crawford one of the bottles of Condy’s . fluid. and asked him if that Was one of the ingredients for the manufacture of. motor spirit. 1 He said it was; accused inferred there was something else in it. . /

Counsel entered pleas of not guilty to all charges and Crawford was committed to the Supreme Court for trial. Bail was allowed at £5OO, with two sureties of £250, a condition being that Crawford is to report weekly to the police.