STRANGE BANKRUPTCY

Taranaki Daily News, 24 June 1935, Page 7

STRANGE BANKRUPTCY

“DISGRACEFUL CAREER.” COUNCILLOR’S BORROWINGS. V" — With a deficiency of £3844, and no assets, Francis McCormack, who has been a member of St. Helens Town Council for 25 years, appeared in Liverpool Bankruptcy Court for public examination recently, says the Daily Express. . McCormack stated that his wife was also a member of the Town Council, and £2OOO of the deficiency represented damages awarded to the petitioning creditor, the Chief Constable of St. Helens, Mr. A. R. Ellerington, for slander. The action was against his wife and he was responsible as’ her husband.

jrhe Official Receiver: Have actions and allegations by you and your wife, which proved unfounded, involved two public inquiries and cost the St. Helens Town Council £10,000?

McCormack: You must eliminate me from that matter. I had nothing to do with it.

Debtor admitted he had earned a good salary as an insurance agent, and that he had signed a statement to. the effect that he had lived in excess of his income, and to meet those expenses borrowed from friends, and also used premiums collected from clients which he should have paid over to companies. Alleging that £47 was sfolen from his pocket at a hotel, he denied that he was the writer of an anonymous letter received by the hotel proprietor in which it was suggested the money ought to be raised by subscription, as the matter was a reflection on the hotel. He also lost £59 at a football match and £2l on a racecourse. McCormack admitted he had spent a good deal of money in drinking and treating, and that he had borrowed from public-house proprietors, grocers, clothiers, a greengrocer, fishmonger, tailor, dispenser, painter, schoolmaster, fruiterer, builder, butcher, doctor, and moneyleders. He owed £lBOO for loans. He was chairman of the public buildings and markets committee, and had borrowed £l3O from Mr. Perry, the doorkeeper. Official Receiver: You, a chairman, borrow from a doorkeeper £l3O and don’t pay him back. Do you think it is a decent thing to do?—lt is not. McCormack denied that he attempted to borrow from applicants for market stalls, and that the position was, “No loan, no stall.” Official Receiver: “Don’t you think your conduct has been despicable and reprehensible in the extreme?—lt has not been nice. ’ Don’t you think so?—I do. In fact, thoroughly disgraceful as a public man?—lf you put it that way.