ABSTRACT
Just three months later, urged on by the governor of the Bank of England, Hatry’s trial began at the Old Bailey before Mr Justice Avory, the longest serving King’s Bench judge. From Hatry’s point of view, the involvement of Sir Horace Avory may have seemed prophetic. He was known as a severe if fair judge, who later admitted to a preference for fraud trials. He had been involved in one capacity or another in every major fraud trial since 1900.
When the attorney general had concluded the prosecution’s case, Hatry and his associates changed their pleas to ‘guilty’ and on the fifth day of the trial, they were convicted and sentenced.
Although they had been warned of the outcome, they were surprised by the severity of the sentence: 14 years’ imprisonment for Hatry. This was the maximum sentence provided by the law, and was the longest sentence handed down in 1930 for any non-capital crime. The sentence was accompanied by a harsh condemnation by the judge, who confessed that he could not imagine a worse crime.
