'Artful codger' escapes prison.A PENSIONER PENSIONER. One who is supported by an allowance at the will of another. It is more usually applied to him who receives an annuity or pension from the government. who fooled the art world for years by selling fake antiques his son had "knocked up" in his garden shed avoided a jail sentence jail sentence jail n → peine f de prison yesterday. Wheelchair-bound George Greenhalgh, 84 - dubbed the "artful codger" - was given a two-year suspended jail sentence at Bolton Crown Court. Greenhalgh would turn up in his wheelchair at art houses and museums claiming to have found or inherited the objects. They had been faked using art and history books by his son Shaun working in the garden shed at the family's modest terrace home in Bolton, Greater Manchester. Forgeries made by the family were sold for at least pounds 850,000, the court heard, with Greenhalgh using the ruse to fool art experts for almost 18 years. The family were ordered to pay back more than pounds 400,000 in compensation. Judge William Morris told the court that the prison service could not look after Greenhalgh humanely because of his age and infirmity Flaw, defect, or weakness. In a legal sense, the term infirmity is used to mean any imperfection that renders a particular transaction void or incomplete. For example, if a deed drawn up to transfer ownership of land contains an erroneous description of it, an - otherwise he would be going to prison. He told Morris: "You and your son and wife, over 17 years, conspired to deceive the art and antiquities world, galleries, museums, auction houses, experts and collectors." |
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