LORD ROBERTS' SIGNATURE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1648, 15 January 1913, Page 5

LORD ROBERTS' SIGNATURE.

LONG SENTENCE-FOE SKILFUL .. . ■ : :• FORGERIES. Lord Roberts was present at the Old Bailey on December 3 when Stanley Powys, twenty-six. uesr"iloi| as a finan-cier,-pleaded guilty "to forging tho FieldMarshal's signature'to. a- .cheque for £1750. '■ '■•* :' Tho Recorder (Sir Forest Fulton) said ho should like to know whether the signature bore any'resemblance at all to the writing- of the Field-Marshal. Lord Roberts, on inspecting the.document, re- , plied that the, handwriting was very like his.' ; 'He'did not/know.:' tho prisoner at all' .•;'■ '■"■' '•■ ':'•■; ,'. ■' L You cannot give any explanation as to how he became posscssed'of your handwriting'so as to enable.'him so carefully ■to copy it?—l have-no idea at all. _ • . Powys was .then, proceeded . against in connection- with other 'indictments, to which he,, along with James Burke, twenty-six, variety artist, had pleaded guilty.K Mr. Boutton, prosecuting, 6a;d the two- men were associated:, together in a very large fraud, stealing letters from ■letter-boxes by means of a strong attached ' to bird-lime..', Opening a-hank account with a'stolen;'cheque,. 'they gorged a request for a bookVof cheques.; Theso tney obtained,'and'promptly.: used' them to forgo tho names of'people who hfd. accounts at the bank: - '_' Describing the forgeries as very skilful, the Recorder said.both men were exceedingly dangerous members of society. J hewhole of'the chequo-'in the.case: ofLordRoberts was so skilfully, forged that the Field-Marshal himself said it was an admirable imitation. Burke would have seven years' penal'servitude and Powys six years' penal servitude.-