P-NG Man On Fraud Charge
p. 145 · Read in the full issue
J EONARD FRANCIS McEACHERN, a New Guinea businessman, has been remanded to appear in Rabaul District Court on March 22 on a charge of having fraudulently uttered a false document concerning Sandy Creek Gold Sluicing Ltd.
He was remanded in Port Moresby Court on December 10 on £l,OOO bail, and was ordered not to leave Papua-New Guinea before March 22.
The magistrate rejected an application by Mr. G. Dabb, for the Crown, that McEachern should also be ordered to report each week to the police.
Mr. Dabb told the court that investigations into the case against McEachern were continuing and would take a further three months to complete.
He said the case involved many tens of thousands of pounds and that further charges would be made.
The present charge against McEachern, who was arrested in Port Moresby by Sub-Inspector R. F. Jeffrey, states that he had “knowingly and fraudulently uttered a false document, purporting to be a proxy made by Sandy Creek Gold Sluicing Ltd., dated January 29, 1964, appointing lan Alexander McDougall, of Rabaul, or failing him Leonard Francis McEachern, of Rabaul, as its proxy to vote for it . . .”
In November, Mr. Justice Frost, of the P-NG Supreme Court, restrained McEachern from acting as a director of Cosmopolitan Hotel Ltd., of which Sandy Creek Gold Sluicing is a major shareholder (PIM, Dec., p. 145).