ALLEGED CONFIDENCE TRICK.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1638, 3 January 1913, Page 8

ALLEGED CONFIDENCE TRICK.

/,■ RACECOURSE INCIDENT. \ • . : (By -Telegraph—Press , A&sociationi.) " Auckland, January 1. • : '-You have-got. away with my .£25. I'm going to fetch the police.". This remark, made in broken English by an excited 'Austrian named John Pibicevich, caused no little ozcitemcnt on the racecourso at Ellerslie to-day. Pibvicevich camo from Dargavillo to town a; few days ago. ' lie "came with .tho savings of some months in the country to spend the holiday in Auckland, but lie said lie was sorry lie had not'(stayed at home. : A day or so.ogo he told the police ho had. met a man with whom! he became friendly, and tho friend, in'turn, became confidential. Tho friend knew of many "good things" at ■Ellerslie. In fact,, so Pibricevich says. hi 9 'acquaintance and mate were supposed to b) right in the thick of the moneymnking part of the business. And if Pibricevich liked they would help to mako hoaps of money for him., That-, ; at ! any rate, is the story of the ■ Austrian. - . According to Pibricevich they went out to the. comse to-day. The Austrian took .£25 in five-pound notes with hini, and ho confessed ho :really., believed his.- friend of only a few days' acquaintance "knew i things" 'He • went on to say that tho "friend" took ilio ,£25, ostensibly to put on Bon Revo in llio third race, arid left him standing on the corner of the lawn. The friend,came .back. "Sorry, but it wasn't Bon Reve,' but .another horse ■ I meant." But the friend did not liavo totalisator tickets renresentine an invest-, ment of X 25, and Pibricevich says that ho grew suspicious.- : It was then he nindo the remark which showed that soemhting interesting hud happened. . ■ Constable Neil, whom t.ho Austrian consulted, found the friend, and after an examination of t.ho ease in a room in the members' stand, ho was sent to Hid police station charged with having tried to work the confidence trick, or in legal terms with alleged theft from tlu- person. The third man has not bo far been- found by tho polico.