FALSE PRETENCES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 96, 26 April 1933, Page 8

FALSE PRETENCES

OVERSEAS PASSAGES CASE MONEY WRONGLY OBTAINED [ Per Press Association. ] AUCKLAND. April 24. Harold Bradley Brownrigg, agent, of Auckland, was to-day ordered by Mr Wyvern Wilson. S.M., to pay £l7 18s 2d to W. H. Le Sueur, civil servant, in default 18 days’ imprisonment. The defendant on March 14 had consented to judgment for £l2 10s. Examined on oath, Brownrigg said that his earnings since March 14 were £2 Os 6d relief sustenance. He denied making any representations to the plaintiff, either personally or by agents. He admitted that Overseas Passages, Ltd., with which he had been connected, was not a registered company. Le Sueur and fourteen others had paid deposits on passage, moneys totalling £ll2 10s. That money had been used in the business, in addition to £3OO which he personally had borrowed. He admitted that the firm had never chartered a steamer, and denied that it had ever represented to anyone that a steamer had been •chartered. After hearing counsel the magistrate said: ‘‘This money was, I think, obtained under false representation. There was no such company as Overseas Passages, Ltd., but the real question is whether there was a bona fide effort by Brownrigg to carry out the contract to carry Le Sueur and his wife and child to England, but there was nothing. The whole thing recks of fraud. He was trading under a false name. It seems to me that he obtained money on a fraudulent representation, and on that ground I am going to make an order for payment forthwith, in default 18 days' imprisonment.”