Stamp of Disapproval

Stamp collecting is generally thought of a harmless, even educational pursuit. But even today the thought of stamp collecting causes some elderly Dubliners to wince as they recall how their money was turned into fools' gold.

The man with the supposedly golden touch was Paul Singer who, in 1954, reinvented himself in Dublin after his business collapsed in Britain.

In October he set up a business, Shanahan's Stamp Auctions Ltd., with the help of a respected Dun Laoghaire auctioneering firm.

At first all went well, stamp collections were bought and then sold on at auction for a modest profit.

About a year later advertisements appeared promising a quick return to investors. "We give you the opportunity to invest small sums from £10 upward ... we will buy, in your name ... Stamps which WE KNOW will fetch higher prices in our own Auctions here."

The Irish economy was depressed and thousands of people jumped at the chance to make a profit. Some were very small investors, many others invested their life savings.

It all began to unravel just over four years later when, on May 9 1959, it was discovered that the firm's impressive premises on George's Street had been robbed (£290,000 worth of stamps were later recovered when police arrested a former Shanahan's employee in Geneva).

From that moment on the rumour machine went into overdrive, investment stopped and demands for repayment multiplied. Two weeks later the liquidators were called in - assets were about £500,000, claims were over £2,000,000.

The directors were arrested, Paul Singer, his wife, Irma, and Jerome and Arthur Desmond Shanahan.

Singer, at every opportunity, argued that the firm and the scheme had been sound but remained in jail pending trial until November 1960.

After a 25-day trial Paul Singer was sentenced to 15 years penal servitude. He appealed and after a mammoth 47-day trial the judge instructed the jury to find him not guilty. He walked from the court on April 11 1961 and simply disappeared ... as had the most of the investors' money.