§ Mr. Johnstonasked the Attorney-General whether he can give a list of the prosecutions undertaken by the Crown against persons accused of share-pushing frauds during the past 18 months; the estimated amounts of the moneys involved in each charge; and the results of the prosecutions?
§ The Attorney-GeneralThis answer refers to cases undertaken by the Director of Public Prosecutions. I have no information with regard to other prosecutions, if any, that there may have been. I should like to add that the amounts of money involved in each charge do not represent the total losses sustained by the victims of these frauds and I have no data on which even a rough estimate of this latter figure could be based.
There are five further prosecutions which have been undertaken but not concluded, involving 26 defendants.
1617W
Share-pushing Cases. Prosecution. Amount Involved. Result. £ s. d. Rcy Jardine Angus … … 2,060 0 0 Convicted. Douglas Stanley Hewitt … … 1,133 5 9 Convicted. William Underhill … … 32,225 11 0 Convicted. John William Robert Elphinstone … … Convicted. Samuel Taylor … … Convicted. James Harvey Brown … … 5,025 0 0 Convicted. Dorothy Florence Brander … … Not convicted. William Robinson … … Convicted. Charles William Dickinson … … 456 11 0 Convicted. Dore Isidore Ba [...]mgart … … No amount stated in Indictment. Conspiracy charge only. Convicted. Edward Harold Guylee … … 1,042 11 6 Convicted. Frederick Narramore … … Convicted. Arthur Christopher William Cheeseley … … Convicted. Harold Bennett … … Not convicted. John Northam … …. Not convicted. James Thomas Dixon … … Not convicted. Henry Isaac Rothfield … … — Convicted. Michael Albert Isaacs … … 10,225 7 11 Convicted. £52,168 7 2 In addition conversion of or receiving shares value of which not stated.
§ Mr. Johnstonasked the Lord Advocate, whether he is now in a position to state when further proceedings, if any, are to be taken against Thomas Charlton, arrested, charged, and released on £600 bail, at Edinburgh sheriff court in February, 1936, on share-pushing charges?
§ The Lord AdvocateFollowing exhaustive investigations both in Edinburgh and in London, the charge in this case was dropped last spring owing to insufficiency of evidence.