The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-08 00:00:00

THE FRAUDULENT TRUSTEES ACT.

The following is a copy of the new act to make
better provision for the punishment of frauds com-
mitted by trustees, bankers, and other persons en-
trusted with property :
Whereas it is expedient to make bettor provision
for the punishment of frauds committed by trus-
tees, bankers, and other persons entrusted with
property : Be 3 it enacted by the Queen's most ex-
cellent Majesty, by and with the advice and con-
sent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and
Commons, in the present parliament assembled,
and by the authority of the same, as follows :
1. If any person being a trustee of any property for
benefit, either wholly or partially, of some other
person, or for any public or charitable purpose shall
with intent to defraud, convert or appropriate the
same or any part thereof to or for his own use or
purposes, or shall, with intent aforesaid, otherwise
dispose of or destroy such property or any part
thereof, he shall be guilty of misdemeanour.
2. If any person being a banker, merchant, bro-
ker, attorney, or agent, and being entrusted for
safe custody with the property of any other person,
shall with intent to defraud, sell, negotiate, trans-
fer, pledge, or in any manner convert or appropriate
to or for his own use such property or any part
thereof, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour.
3. If any person entrusted with any power of at-
torney for the sale or transfer of any property shall
fraudulently sell or transfer of otherwise convert
such property or any part thereof to his own use or
benefit, he shall be guilty of a misdemeauour.
4. If any person, bring a bailee of any property,
shall fraudulently take or convert the same to his
own use, or the use of any person other than the
owner thereof, although he shall not break bulk or
otherwise determine the bailment, he shall be
guilty of larceny.
5. If any person, being a director, member, or
public officer of any body corporate, or public com-
pany, shall fraudulently take or apply, for his own
use, any of the money or other property of such
body corporate or public company, be shall be
guilty of a misdemeanour.
6. If any person, being a director, public officer,
or manager of any body corporate or public com-
pany, shalt as such receive or pocsess himself of any
of the money or other property of such body corpo-
rate or public company otherwise than in payment
of a just debt or demand, and shall, with intent to
defraud, omit to make, or to cause or direct to be
made a full and true entry thereof in the books and
accounts of such body corporate or public company,
he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour.
tr. If any-director, manager, public officer, or
member of any body corporate or public company
shall, with intent to defraud, destroy, alter, muti-
late, or falsify any of the books, papers, writings,
or securities belonging to the body corporate or
public company of which he is a director or manager,
public officer or member, or make or concur in the
making of any false entry, or any material omission
in any book of account or other document, he shall
be guilty of a misdemeanour.
8. If any director, manager, or public officer of
any body corporate or public company shall make,
circulate, or publish, or concur in making, circulat-
ing, or publishing any written statement or account
which he shall know to be false in any materialspar-
ticular, with intent to deceive or defraud any member,
shareholder, or creditor of such body corporate or
public company, or with intent to induce any person
to become a shareholder or partner theirein, or to in-
trust or advance any money or property to such
body corporate or public company, or to enter into
any security for the benefit thereof, he shall be
guilty of a misdemeanor.
9. If any person shall receive any chattel, money,
or valuable security which shall have been so fraudu-
lently disposed of as to render the party disposing
thereof guilty of a misdemeanor under any of the
provisions of this act, knowino, the same to have
been so fraudulently disposed of, he shall be guilty
of a misdemeanor, and may be indicted and con-
victed thereof, whether the party guilty of the prin-
cipal misdemeanor shall or shall not have been pre-
viously convicted, or shall or shall not be amenable
to justice.
10. Every person found guilty of a misdemeanor
under this act shall be liable, at the discretion of the
court, to be kept in penal servitude for the term of
three years, or to suffer such other punishment, by
imprisonment for not more than two years with or
without hard labour, or by fine, as the court shall
award.
11. Nothing in this act contained shall enable or
entitle any person to refuse to make a full and com-
plete discovery by answer to any bill in equity, or
to answer any question or interrogatory in any civil
proceeding in any court of law or equity, or in the
courts of bankruptcy or insolvency ; but no answer
to any such bill, question, or interrogatory shall be
admissible in evidence against such person in any
proceeding under this act.
12. Nothing in this act contained, nor any pro-
ceeding, conviction, or judgment to be had or taken
thereon against any person under the act, shall pre-
vent, lessen, or impeach any remedy at law or in
equity which any party aggrieved by any offence
against this act might have had if this act had not
been passed; but no conviction of any such offender
shall be received in evidence in any action at law or
suit in equity against him ; and nothing in this act
contained shall affect or prejudice any agreement
entered into or security given by any trustee,
having for its object the restoration or repayment
of any trust property misappropriated.
13. No proceeding or prosecution for any offence
included in the first section, but not included in
any other section of this act, shall bo commenced
without the sanction of her Majesty's Attorney-
General, or, in case that officy bo vacant, of her
Majesty's Solicitor-General ; provided that where
any civil proceeding shall have been taken against
any parson to whom the provisions of the said first
section, but not of any other section of this act,
may apply, no person who shall have taken such
civil proceeding shall commence any prosecution
under this act without the sanction of the court or
judge before whom such civil proceeding shall have
been had or shall be pending.
14. If upon the trial of any person under this
act it shall appear that the offence proved amounts
to larceny, ho shall not by reason thereof be
entitled to be acquitted of a misdemeanor under
this act.
15. In every prosecution for a misdemeanour
against this act the court before which any.such
offence shall be prosecuted or tried may allow the
expenses of the prosecution in all respects as in
of felony.
16. No misdemeanour against this act shall be
prosecuted or tried at any court of general or
quarter sessions of the peace.
17. The word "trustee" shall in this act mean a
trustee on some express trust created by some deed,
will, or instrument in writing, and shall also include
the heir and personal representative of any such
trustee, and also all executors and administrators,
liquidators under the Joint Stock Companies Act,
1856, and all assignees in bankruptcy and insol
vency. The word " property" shall include every
description of real and personal property, goods,
raw or other materials, money, debts,
and legacies,
and all deeds and instruments relating to or evi-
dencing the title or right to any property, or giv-
ing a right to recover or receive any money or
goods ; and such word " property" shall also de-
note and include not only such real and personal