OFFICER TO PRISON.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10819, 9 December 1902, Page 6

OFFICER TO PRISON.

At the Central- Ojimiiial Court, Lr-ndon, Henry Edwflr.d. Baker, *. the •4rmy, who. p,lertdcd guilty at the 3v)y ses-t sions to. obtaining large sums of .nonoy.hy falsg pretences, was brought up i'"t sohten^p. Tlie. case was a very distressing one, the pcr&oris defrauded being" people' y.oving in good society and friends of in. •'•used. Two ladies named -Mrs Lizzie Baimirldge 801 l and Miss Bajporidge Le Fleming had entrusted money to prisoner to invest. The' transactions" began in September, ,1896, and from time to time Mrs Le Fleming, who wa^s the principal victim, handed to. prisoner thousands of pounds. For some time interest on the money was regularly paid, but after." a^ while the interest began to get in arrears, "* and when the accused was written to his" replies were most unsatisfactory. Hoj however, repeatedly asserted that the was safe, although ht th,e time he woll knew that he had dissipated the. wbple of "the money in speculative transactions^ in betting, in payments io money-lenders,, arid^in -extravagant V v "" ing. v In 190} the matter was placed in the hands of spl^tors, with the result that prisoner was prosecuted. Captain Jc rdan, in 1890, was induced by prisoner 4p Taack a bill for 2EIOOO, which Jordan "had to meet, fn another case he persuaded a brother officer to entrust him/ with , .£2OOO for investment. This money also, was lostl It was argued on behalf of thettprisane'r that he ,was the son of a clergyman in the Church of England, who at s.one time "was poßsessed of, considerable, "wealth. That, therefore, explained the conduct of- ,the prisoner who believed himself to be. a man of considerable expectations. In 189,8, after the death of his father,- it was •unfovtul hately found that owing to building speC« illations, which had turned ' out unsuccesi fwl, tlio family wliicb l^ad—cnjoyed .'considerable aflluence, was left; in somewhat [ straitened circumstances. It was then that prisoner gave way to speculations in the hope of '"relieving himself of his diffic ulties*. *" ■ In reply to the Common Serjeant, Mr ! Mathews s|id that prisoner had r»ccived about .£13,000 from tliese people. ! The Conimon Serjeant said that the only ; mitigating circumstance seemed to he that prisoner had obtained the greater j.url of this money when he had great e^j>e» taiions. He .sentenced him to n.hen months' imprisonment.