Woolcott Forbes

The Crash of Woolcott Forbes Repercusssion In Wau, New Guinea

A MEETING in Wau, New Guinea, with a gentleman named Reuben Levitus, about two years ago, had an unhappy sequel for a New Guinea miner, Robert Charles Symes, who is well-known in Wau, where he has resided for about ten years. Mr. Symes, by hard work and good management of various contracts, had succeeded in accumulating a small fortune, and he came to Sydney in August, 1938, for a holiday.

In Sydney, Mr. Symes resumed his acquaintanceship with Mr. Reuben Levitus, and the latter suggested that Mr. Symes might invest some of his money in businesses in which his brother, Albert Levitus, was interested.

One day Mr. Symes was called upon at his flat in Kings Cross, Sydney, by Reuben and Albert Levitus, and taken in a car to the superlatively luxurious home of John Woolcott Forbes, in Gordon. Mr.

Symes was introduced to Mr. Forbes by Mr. Albert Levitus, with the remark that Mr. Symes would give consideration to a plan of lending Mr. Forbes £B,OOO on second mortgage on his home. Mr. Symes, conducted by Mr. Forbes, duly inspected the home.

Mr. Symes did not bite too readily, however. A week later, he was called upon by Reuben and taken to the offices of the Scottish Loan and Finance Com pany, where they met Albert Levitus; and from there the two brothers took him to the office of the chairman of the com pany, Mr. Bruce Walker, M.L.A. Mr.

Walker asked Mr. Symes for a loan of £5,000, offering various shares and pro perty as security. Eventually Mr. Symes gave Mr. Walker the loan of £4,000, on a second mortgage.

In October, Mr. Woolcott Forbes took Mr. Symes to lunch, and asked him to put £4,000 or £5,000 into Scottish Loan preference shares, and he suggested that Mr. Symes should receive a directorship in Scottish Loan and in that capacity should represent the company in New Guinea. Symes, very fortunately for him, said he would not bring any more money into Australia for investment, but that, if Walker released the second mort gage he (Symes) would put the money into Scottish Loan. Eventually, Walker released the second mortgage, and Mr.

Symes duly invested £3,950 in Scottish Loan preferences at 8 per cent, (to re turn him £316 p.a.), and he was also given a directorship in Scottish Loan, on condition that he represented the com pany in New Guinea, for which his fees were to be £3OO per annum.

Mr. Symes returned to New Guinea.

He subsequently received two cheques for his fees as director —the fees, however, had been cut from £3OO to £2OO per an num. When, in March, 1939, he re ceived the balance-sheet of Scottish Loan, and noticed that his name was not in cluded among the directors, he became a little uneasy: and within a very few weeks his worst fears were confirmed.

Mr. John Woolcott Forbes had fled from Sydney—he is now a fugitive from Justice hiding in Europe—and his group of companies are in a sad condition.

Scottish Loan and Finance is in liqui dation, and appears to have few assets— it is unlikely that Mr. Symes will recover his unfortunate investment of £3,950.

The associates of Forbes in Scottish Loan, including Albert Levitus and Bruce Walker, M.L.A., are now in the Police

Court in Sydney facing a charge of con spiracy and the above story was told to the Court by Mr. Symes, who came from New Guinea to give evidence. Mr. Symes said that Mr. Bruce Walker did not ad vise him to put his money into Scottish Loan when he released him from the second mortgage—that advice was given to him by Albert Levitus and Forbes. * * * Forbes was a spectacular, ostentatious person, who appeared in Australia many years ago with a foreign-sounding name, and an extraordinary capacity as a “go getter” salesman: He made money as a