ATTEMPTING TO DEFRAUD A WEALTHY AUSTRALIAN SQUATTER.

Inangahua Times, Volume X, Issue 1541, 29 April 1885, Page 2

ATTEMPTING TO DEFRAUD A WEALTHY AUSTRALIAN SQUATTER.

* Mr Dnncan Cameron Kennedy, the wealthy Victorian squatter, who is now reeiditt^ at Lancaster Grate, Hyde Park, made his appearance at the Guildhall on Monday weefcti prng*>cnt My Herbert Cotterell, a iiihb of rroo ', fa mi It and a member of the ht»«:,

Exchange, for fraud and prejury. The circumstances of the cm* •"% peculiar. They arise, as so f oquomlf happens where rich Australian* arc concerned, from a misplaced ambition to soar into the higher regions of what is known as " good society ." Mr Herbert Cotterell moves, or rather used t* move, in one of the best somi-subarban ft*. Mr Kennedy found this oat, and made friends with him, throwing a> large amount of speculative basin*** in his way. Mr Cotterell seems from the first to hare taken his client for a thick headed fool, for they had sat had many transactions together before be began to tamper with facts and misrepresent margins. Mr Kennedy kept his weather eye open, bnt did not complain directly to the keeker till there came a transaction which Cotterell represented as leaving a loss of LB2B, bat which Kennedy believed ought to have yielded £10,000 profit. Over this the pair quarrelled. Cotterell demanded a cheque for LB2B. Kennedy of coarse refused it. Imagining be could scare the old colonist, Cotterell-— secure in his serial rank and bustuess status — threatened legal proceeding*. He was, however, " hoist with hi* Own petard." for Kennedy welcomed them as a means of getting at the truth, A civil action bad to be brought, and in the coarse of the case tbe production of CottereU'R books was imperatively demanded. TMfe broker did all he could to avaid showing them. He Bled affidavits, volunteered extracts, and threw* every conceivable obstacle possible in the way — all to no* effect The Court was suspicion* and obdurate. Eventually Mr CharlesCase, a representatives of Kennedy's. vitited Cotterell's office and inspected the ledger. At first everything seeded in order ; then the odd color of two. blank pages immediately following, Kennedy's account attracted his atta*. tion, and he sent for a detectiv*. Tb* latter saw at once that the original pages have been, for some reason or other, extracted and replaced carefully with blank ones. Directly Cotterell got a bint that his little games were a boat to be exposed, he burnt all tbe books h*» could lay his hands oa containing damning evidence, and quietly absconded. The police, however, arrested him before he could cress th» Channel. At the Guildhall, on Monday, evidence was given by the hookHinder Cotterell engaged to substitute blank leaves for two written over, and by a junior clerk who saw him burning his liooks. The wretched man has, of course, been committed for trial.