Gruban v Booth

Gruban v Booth was a 1917 fraud case in England that generated significant publicity because the defendant, Frederick Handel Booth, was a Member of Parliament. Gruban was a German-born businessman who ran several factories that made tools for manufacturing munitions for the First World War. In an effort to find money to expand his business he contacted a businessman and Member of Parliament named Frederick Handel Booth, who agreed to provide the necessary money. After stealing money Booth tricked Gruban into handing over the company and then had him interned under war-time regulations to prevent the story coming out.

Gruban successfully appealed against his internment, and as soon as he was freed brought Booth to court. The case was so popular that the involved barristers found it physically difficult to get into the court each day due to the size of the crowds gathered outside. Although the barristers on both sides were noted for their skill the case went almost entirely one way, with the jury taking only ten minutes to find Booth guilty. This was one of the first noted cases of Patrick Hastings, and his victory in it led to him applying to become a King's Counsel.

John Gruban was a German-born businessman, originally named Johann Wilhelm Gruban, who had come to England in 1893 to work for an engineering company, Haigh and Company. By 1913 he had turned the business from an almost bankrupt company to a successful manufacturer of machine tools, and at the outbreak of the First World War it was one of the first companies to produce machine tools used to make munitions. This made Gruban a major player in a now-large market, and he attempted to raise £5,000 to expand his business. On independent advice he contacted Frederick Handel Booth, a noted Liberal Member of Parliament who was chairman of the Yorkshire Iron and Coal Company and had led the government inquiry into the Marconi scandal. When Gruban contacted Booth, Booth told him that he could do "more for [your] company than any man in England", claiming that David Lloyd George (at the time Minister of Munitions) and many other important government officials were close friends. With £3,500 borrowed from his brother-in-law, Booth immediately invested in Gruban's company.

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