“MEAN IMPOSTER”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20166, 7 June 1928, Page 7

“MEAN IMPOSTER”

FALSE PRETENCES Money From Well-Known Hawked Bay Lady ROLLS ROYCE AND NO CASH [ Per Press Association J NAPIER, June 6. Colin Coryton, was found guilty in the Supreme Court to-day and. sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment with hard labour on a charge that on or about April 5 at Rotorua he did obtain from Helen Caroline Lowry the sum of £3OO by falsely representing that he had a letter of credit for £llOO at the National Bank of New Zealand at Nelson. Evidence as heard in the Lower Court last Friday was tendered. Cross-examining Mrs Lowry, counsel for accused asked: “I put it to you that you were sympathetic to this young man?” Mrs Lowry: Well, 1 am known as the most sympathetic and foolish man in New Zealand. Counsel: I agree with you as to the first portion of your answer. Mrs Lowry: This is the last time though. No evidence was called for the defence. Counsel contended that misrepresentation with regard to the letter of credit did not induce Mrs Lowry to lend the money, and he suggested that in this case it was Mrs Lowry’s generous desire to help Coryton, more than anything else that induced her to lend the money on the security of his Rolls Royce car. Mr Justice Ostler pointed out that Coryton admitted to the police that ho told Airs Lowry he had a letter of credit, and Mrs Lowry said in evidence that she lent the money on that assurance. The fact that she had enough bu>inoss instinct when making the loan to get a promissory note and security of the car was not at all inconsistent with her statement that she was ia duced to make the loan on false representation.

The jury took 15 minutes to a verdict of guilty. In passing sentence, Mr Justice Ostler said it looked to him as though accused had been little better than n vulgar adventurer living beyond his moans. “Wc in Now Zen land appreciate plain folk ami know their true worth, but you have been a mean imposter, travelling about the country in a Rolls Royce car with a man servant, leaving behind a train of debt. It is in the public interest that you should receive a sharp lesson.”