THE CATSPAW'S SHARE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 257, 3 November 1906, Page 13

THE CATSPAW'S SHARE.

SBQUKIj IP A SBMSA'IWKAU' iJBWEi. „- LO.NBOiN, September 22. " Some weeks ago a show-case at the ttoyal Austrian Exhibition -at Marl's Court containing jewellery worth £301(0 to £4000 was broken open and the contents stolen. It wae a very daring robbery, and as tue thieves left not the slightest clue to their Identity it is highly probable <that the .police would have been unable to bring home the crime to anyone had the guilty parties remained true to each other. Happily one man concerned imagiued that one of his accomplices had played him false, and in order to get level with his "pal" and throw suspicion off himself he communicated with the police. They thought he .knew a good deal more about the robbery than he professed to do, and not only arrested the man he indicated as being the probable thief, but took the informer into custody also. The real thief, one Alullender, finding his accomplice, a man named lioseuberg, had given him away, promptly made a full confession which implicated one Thompson and his wife, and a "fence" whose identity was concealed under the nickname of "Old Jack." The police promptly arrested Thompson and his "missus," who, lite Muilender and Kosenberg, were "old friends" of the force; but "Old Jack", had disappeared into thin air, and with him the jewels.

The four prisoners were duly docked at the Old Bailey this week and charged, Mullender with the theft, Rosenberg with inciting him thereto, and the Thompsons with being accessories after the fact and introducing t Alullender to the receiver, "Old Jack."

Aiullender, who turned King's evidence, is a Hungarian. He had spent some time in gaol for receiving stolen property, but had after his release made an attempt to lead an honest life. He got a job as an attendant at the exhibition at £2 a week, and appeared to be "going straight." Then Kosenberg appeared on the scene and commenced to prompt Alullender to steal the jewels. For a time the Hungarian withstood the tempter, but finally fell. The robbery was arranged, and a meeting to share the spoil agreed upon. But Kosenberg failed to keep the appointment, so iiullender took his haul to Thompson, who ran a wardrobe dealer's shop at Clapham. There he Was introduced to "Old Jack," who agreed to buy the jewels for £500, and gave him £yo on account, promising to pay the balance at a certain place in Brighton next day. Of the £1)0 ilullender gave the Thompsons £72 and a friend of theirs another £ - J. Then he bought a bicycle and rotie down to Brighten to receive the rest of the purchase money. lint no "Old Jack" turned up at the appointed place, and liullender never saw him again. So he had lost a decent billet put himself in peril of a long term of imprisonment all for the sake 01' £16:

Mullender got IS months* Jiara labour and was ordered to be deported at the expiration of Jiis sentence, and liosenberg received tliree years' penal servitude, Thompson's sentence being 15 months' hard labour, whilet his wife was bound over to come up for judgment -when called upoii. Kosecberg is well known u> tiie police as an associate of thieves and a planner of robberies which he is too cowardly to carry out. He is a German, and had to leave the Fatherland because Jie forged his mother's name for a large sum of money. Thompson is an "old lag" who is Known as one of the cleverest horse-copers Jn England. As will be seen, two of the principals in this robbery were aliens, and on the day of their trial the precincts of the Old Bailey were crowded with men and women whose tongues betrayed them as foreigners and their faces as moral degenerates if not actual criminals. No Englishman could view the crovrd without wishing fervently that our legislators would apply promptly and rigidly something analogous to the "White Australia" policy in relation to these foreigners. The records of our police courts day by day, and those of the Central Criminal Court ana the Quarter Sessions, prove beyond doubt that something like 30 per cent of the more serious crimes of violence and robbery perpetrated in .London are the work of imported criminals.