A CLEVER SWINDLE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 154, 29 June 1907, Page 13

A CLEVER SWINDLE.

JEWELLER LOSES £1000. LONDON, May 17. It is the habit of the average man who has never been "had" to smile with amused contempt at the victims of confidence tricksters. He forgets, of course, that men who live by their wits must possess more than the usual amount of "slimness,", that they are trained' to their profession, that once they have really made up their minds that a man is worth "doing down," they will hunt him assiduously for weeks, and that once he gets into their company he has as poor a chance of getting away unscatched as a fly in a spider's web. If the ordinary tricks of the confidence man prove unavailing they do not hesitate to use foul means to accomplish their object, and they are adepts at creating opportunities for the use of drugs on their intended victims. As a rule, however, their work is accomplished without recourse to what we may call the sterner methods. They will taie an infinity of trouble In compassing the downfall of the man they mark down for prey. They do not rush at him like a bull at a gate, but lay their plans carefully, perhaps weeks ahead.

This week, for instance, a Londpn diamond merchant was robbed at an hotel In Fleet-street of jewellery valued at £1000. The plan by which he was deceived had been ingeniously conceived. About a week ago Mr Risle, the jeweller in question, was introduced by a man whom he knew to be a frequenter of jewellery sale rooms to a person described as the proprietor of a well known wine bar in the city. During the conversation this person asked Mr Risle whether he could match a diamond earring for his wife, representing that she had lost one, and that, though the other had been in the care of a jeweller in Fleet-street for a month, he had been unable to match It. He arranged that in the event of the earring not being matched he would write to Mr Risle to provide a new one. Mr Risle acceded to this, and on Monday night a letter arrived at his depot asking him to meet his customer at Fenchurch-street station on the morrow. Mr Risle kept the appointment, and took with him a case of expensive rings, worth about £1000. From Fenchurch-street the diamond merchant was taken to Peele's Hotel In Fleet-street. A third man soon afterwards entered the hotel, and was introduced to Mr Risle as the proprietor, who might be willing to do

"a decent deaL" Mr Risle displayed his rings, and the gentleman who accompanied him from Fenchurch-street then left, saying that he would go and fetch the earring from the jewellers. The other man thereupon suggested to Mr Risle that he would like to show the case to his wife, and, receiving consent, went out to an open door, which looked as though it merely led into a private room adjoining, but which really gave access to Fetter-lane. As neither of the men returned, Mr Risle became anxious, and the police were commonicated with, and the hue and cry raised. Thus far, however, no trace of either the missing men or the rings has been rorthcomlßg.