THE HALF SOVEREIGN TRICK.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1013, 30 November 1883, Page 4

THE HALF SOVEREIGN TRICK.

The police have run in a dangerous trickster. Two men came to Wellington from the South a few days ago, says Wednesday’s New Zealand Times, and began skirmishing among the shopkeepers, prior to heavier operations at the coming races. Finding our traders to be mostly trustful and easy-going people, the confederates tried “ ringing the changes,” and did it with a success which, after previous exposures and warning, seems truly astonishing. This ancient and oft-ex-posed trick is absurdly simple. One trickster goes into a shop, buys a small article worth, perhaps, sixpence, and puts down half-a-sovereign in payment. The shopkeeper wraps up the purchase, agrees that the weather has been very unseasonable lately, and puts dowa 9s 6d as change. Suddenly the purchaser remembers that he has enough small change for the article; therefore he puts his half-sovereign and the 9s 6d change together, adds another 6d to make 20s, and asks the shopkeeper to oblige him with a pound note, as he doesn’t like carrying coin. The shopkeeper, being always obliging, puts a note on the counter, takes up the 20s in coin, gets 6d more for the articles purchased, and the transaction is complete. What could be fairer ? It is merely a case of getting change, and if a mistake has been made, it can be rectified. But the queer part of it is that the mistake is not observed till after the well dressed stranger has gone ; and it may then be discovered—though discovery is very rare—that the stranger has got he shopkeeper’s pound note in exchange for the stranger’s half-sovereign and the shopkeeper’s 9s 6d. This stale old trick has been played on a score of shopkeeper’s in this city, and only one out of the lot detected where the swindle came in, though another refused to oblige the stranger because the operation seemed suspicious. The net result is that the trickster is known to have cheated these confiding traders out of at least Lio, and there are probably other cases not yet known to the police. When the fellow was taken into custody he had some sixpenny articles and only L2 odd in money, including two or three indispensable half-sovereigns; but where had the other illicit cash gone? It is the business of the confederate, who remains outside, to collect the plunder ; and as this confederate is not yet in custody, he may have flown to another field to seek consolation in “ringing the changes,” till his mate can join him again. At the Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday; a stylish young man named Charles Walter Dixon was charged under the Vagrant Act with attempting to impose on Alex. Sample, draper, on Saturday night. This was one of the eight cases in which the prisoner had practised the trick of mixing the change. He had purchased a necktie for is; tendered half a sovereign; got 9s change; then asked for a poundnote, and having got it he was about to leave, when Mr Sample pointed out that he had not tendered enough. The prisoner replied, “You are quite right,” and then paid ten shillings more as it it were a mere oversight. The Magistrates seemed surprised that there was no evidence of deception to bear out the charge. Chief Detective Browne explained that evidence in other cases would show that this trick of mixing the change was a systematic swindle. Two other cases were then heard, in which the prisoner had duped T. Gordon, chemist, ot 1 os, and duped Mrs Scott, confectioner, of 20s. The cases being so numerous and some of them so clear, it was evident he could not escape the clutch of justice; so he pleaded guilty in the case of Mrs Scott without a word of defence. The Magistrates sentenced the prisoner to three months’ hard labor in each of three . cases proved, but made the sentences run concurrently, amounting to three months in all. The other cases were withdrawn. The prisoner is known to have been formerly in Sydney practising the “ match-box trick;” and lately he has been in Dunedin and Christchurch, duping shopkeepers by “ ringing the changes,” though he got away with some plunder without being prosecuted. His career in Wellington has been too successful, the cases being so numerous that the police soon heard of one -or two, and then traced out many others. Several local shopkeepers were so ashamed at being duped in this simple way that they refused to assist the police.