SPENDTHRIFT DIRECTOR

Waipawa Mail, Volume LXVII, Issue 91, 19 April 1939, Page 4

SPENDTHRIFT DIRECTOR

SEVENTY POUNDS A -WEEK. LONDON, March 18. For 15 years Mr Thomas Coulthard, 82-year-old ex-governing director of a Rochdale leather company, spent about £7O a week. This week he stood in Rochdale Bankruptcy Court with 3s lid in his pocket—“ All I have left.” The 3s lid was change from 5s his wife gave him in the morning—enough for his lunch and return fare from his home in Didsbury, Manchester. It was Mr Coulthard’s £7O a week expenditure—£s6,ooo in 15 years—that brought him to Court, with gross liabilities of £34,216 and assets expected to realise £1564 19s sd. “It’s really due to living beyond my income and the non-success of business,” he explained to Mr P. M. Milward, official receiver. “I haven’t a penny left now. All my securities, my home, are pledged to the bank.” Items read from the company’s books included: £21,048 —cash withdrawals. Eight times Mr Milward asked how the money was spent. Finally Mr Coulthard replied: “I don’t know; it’s a puzzle to me.” Mr Coulthard joined the business as a bookkeeper in 1879. He was made a partner in 1894 and with two

friends took control of the concern ten years later. In 1920 he bought out his friends, paying them more than £50,000most of it borrowed money. Three year’s later he promoted a public company—with himself as governing director and trustee for the debenture holders. Be had full control of the business. But he used the capital to pay off the loans with which he bought out the old company. SPENT £4OOO A YEAR, Since 1928 the company has not paid any dividend, but during the 15 years of its formation Mr Coulthard' spent nearly £4OOO a year, including loan repayments. Asked how his remuneration as governing director was arranged Mr Coulthard said it was done at general meetings. The official receiver told him: “Stripped of its legal niceties it means you were fixing your own remuneration. ’ ’ Mr Coulthard' has now resigned but—“l’m not finished yet. I’ll go back to business if I can.”