The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-15 00:00:00

CRIMINAL COURT.—Dec. 14.

Richard Parnham Ridley, 33, a gentlemanly-looking man,
described as a soldier, and who, it appeared, formerly held a
commission in one of her Majesty's dragoon regiments, was
charged with having unlawfully:obtained, by false pretences,
the sum of £3OO from a society called the British Mutual
Loan and Investment Company, with intent to defraud them
of that amount.

There was a second charge against the defendant of hav-
ing unlawfully and wilfully made a false declaration.

The defendant pleaded not guilty to both charges, and
and the learned counsel for the prosecution elected to pro-
ceed upon the last-mentioned one.

Mr. Giffard and Mr. M. Williams prosecuted, and Mr.
Sleigh defended the prisoner.

The learned counsel for the prosecution, in opening the
case to the jury, explained to them that the charge was pre-
ferred under one of the sections of an act of Parliament
passed in the reign of his late Majesty William IV., the ob •
ject of which was to abolish the system of making voluntary
oaths, and authorising, in lieu thereof, the making of decla-
rations, when such instruments were required fur the pur-
pose of perfecting or explaining the title to property ; and
which at the same time enacted that any false statement
upon a material matter made wilfully in such a declaration
rendered the party making such false statement amenable
to a charge of misdemeanor. It appeared that in the month
of April of the present year the prisoner made an applica •
tion through his solicitor, Mr. John Strutt, to the prose-
cutors for a loan of £3OO, and the security he proposed to
give was his interest in one-fourth part of the sum of
£3,000, to which he was entitled under the will of an
uncle, and which would come into his possession upon the
death of his mother, who was seventy years of age; and
he stated in his proposal that the money was vested in Go-
vernment stock in the names of two trustees, his uncles, one
of whom was dead. The propoaal was entertained by the
company, and in the course of the negotiations that took
place the defendant appeared to have expressed a wish that
his uncle, the surviving trustee, might not be made ac-
quainted with the fact of his endeavouring to obtain money
upon his reversion, as it might offend him, and damage his
future prospects. The company having ascertained that the
defendant was a person of respectability, consented to forego.
the usual proceeding of giving notice to the trustee, and re-
quired, in lieu thereof, that the defendant should make a
declaration that he had not previously encumbered the pro-
perty in any manner, and he accordingly made a declaration
before one of the Masters in Chancery appointed far this and
had never encumbered the reversionary in-
other
manner purposes,
that h e in which he declared in the most positive
terest in question in any way. Upon this being done the
the prosecutors advanced the money, the arrangement for
the repayment being that a certain sum should be paid by
the defendant every month. No payments, it appeared,
were made by the defendant, and this of course led to in-
quiries being made, which resulted in the discovery that on
Nov. 6, 1860, the defendant had made an absolute sale of
his reversion to the share of the funds in question for the
sum of £l2O, and that the gentleman who purchased the
reversion made a re-sale of his interest in it two years after-
wards by public auction for the sum of £125. A warrant
for the apprehension of the defendant was then obtained at
Guildhall, which was placed in the hands of Foulger, the
City detective, but he was unable to execute it until a con-
siderable time afterwards, and it appeared that upon his
meeting the defendant in the neighbourhood of Kilburn he
ran off, and was not apprehended until after a long chase,
and when the warrant was read to him he declared that hie
name was not Ridley, and that he was entirely ignorant of
the transaction.

Some evidence having been given,
The Recorder summed up, and the jury almost immedi-
ately returned a verdict of guilty.
His Lordship, in passing sentence, said that it was im •
possible for the jury to have come to any other conclusion
than the one they had arrived at. There could be no doubt
that at the time he made the declaration he was fully entitled
to the reversion to this money, that he must have known
perfectly well that he had disposed of it, and had no right
to make such a declaration ; and under the circumstances
he telt it his duty to sentence him to be imprisoned for eight
months.

George Green, a respectable-looking elderly man, surren-
dered to take his trial upon the charge of having obtained
money by false pretences.
Mr. Metcalfe and Mr. Codd conducted the prosecution.
Mr. Sleigh was counsel for the defendant.
The prosecutors of this indictment were the trustees of
a friendly society called the Journeymen Millwrights' Trade
and Friendly Society, which holds its meetings at the Swan
Tavern, Fish-street-hill. By one of the rules of this society
it appeared that any member who has paid up his subscrip-
tions was entitled, when out of work, to be paid 10s. per
week ; and the case on the part of the prosecution was, that
the prisoner, during the months of February and March of
the present year, had claimed and received several payments
of 10s. weekly from the society, upon the representation
that he was out of work, the fact being that he was in re-
gular employment at the time and in the receipt of two
guineas per week wages. The evidence completely esta-
blished these facts against the prisoner.
Mr. Sleigh said that, after the evidence that had been ad-
duced for the prosecution, he did not feel himself justified in
occupying the time of the jury by addressing thew ; but he
called some witnesses to speak to the character of the pri-
soner.
The Jury having, without any hesitation, returned a ver-
dict of guilty.
The Recorder addressed the prisoner, and said that he had
been convicted of a most gross fraud. As a member of this
society, it was his duty to have protected their funds, and
prevented the society being imposed upon; but instead of
doing this, it had been clearly proved that he had obtained
several sums of money to which he hod no claim whatever,