York Herald - Saturday 17 March 1849:
EXTENSIVE SYSTEM OF SWINDLING AT LEEDS.
WILLIAM MOAT (47), and HENRY SOULBY MELSON (29), were charged with having, at Leeds, conspired together, and, by false pretences, obtained forty stones of oatmeal, with intent to defraud John Thomas Gratton.
Mr. Hall, Mr. Overend and Mr. Hardy were counsel for the prosecution, and Mr. Price for the defence. The individual named in the indictment is a corn factor and flour dealer at Chesterfield. On the13th of December last, he received s letter dated 52, Meadow-lane Leeds, requesting him to send s sack of oatmeal and a sack of shelling, as samples, to Henry Melson & Co., corn factors, Leeds, and then stating that should they suit more extensive orders would be sent. Mr. Gratton replied to this epistle, and asked for a reference, in consequence of which the swindlers transmitted the name of Mr. S. Budworth, 23, Bond Street, Leeds, and Ardwick Bridge, Manchester. On the faith of this apparently respectable referee, the prosecutor dispatched the oatmeal, forming the subject of the present investigation, and it was delivered to them at the railway station in Leeds. No money was ever paid for tbe goods, according to the stipulated terms. Some correspondence took place between Mr. Gratton and the secretary of the Leeds Tradesmen's Protection Society, end, subsequently, with the secretary of a similar association at Liverpool, the result of which was that disclosures were made proving that the parties were extensive swindlers, and that " Mr. S. Budsworth" was no other personage than the prisoner Melson. The scheme of the prisoners wss to take premises in various towns, and represent themselves as merchants, and thus to impose on tradesmen living at a distance from the scene of their fraudulent operations. In Leeds, they assumed the business of seed merchants and corn factors, and, accordingly, took a respectable warehouse in Bond-street ; in Manchester, they represented themselves as wool, cotton, and wine merchants, and also commission agents, and rented, without paying for, premises in Haigh -street ; in Liverpool, they engaged an office in the Stock Exchange Chambers, which they wanted, they said, for the purpose of shipping consignments of earthenware, for Mr. S. Budworth, of the Staffordshire potteries. They likewise asserted that they were gypsum and cement manufacturers at Hull ; and one ot their "company," under the name of Hanford, took some premises in Bishopsgate-street, York, a year or two ago, and attempted to defraud several tradesmen in the city. The imposition, however, was speedily detected, end their enterprise proved a failure. In this manner, under various names, the firm had carried on a large trade, and tradesmen in London, Hull, Northampton, Boston, Portsmouth, and even Belfast and Dundee, and other places, had become the victims of their plans. A great number of letters, alleged to have been written by both the prisoners, were produced, and amongst them the two above referred to, which Moat admitted, when arrested in the warehouse in Bond-street, to be in his hand writing, but under the direction of Melson. All the goods thus obtained had been sold and exchanged for ether commodities, with the exception of a portion of tbe oatmeal which was found in the warehouse in Bond-street. Mr. Price contended that Moat had acted as a servant to Melson, and that there was no conspiracy existing between them.— Guilty .- His lordship sentenced the prisoners to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for twelve months for the conspiracy, and at the expiration of that term to be transported for seven years for the fraud.
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Australian Convict Ship Project
Abt 1820 - Yes, date unknown
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