LONDON HOTEL BURGLARS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1787, 27 June 1913, Page 7

LONDON HOTEL BURGLARS.

,AN ELABORATE PLOT. By Telegraph—Frees Association—Copyright , (Reo. June 26, 11.20 p.m.) London, Juno 26. In tho Berkeley Hotel burglary oase, the Prosecution in the Police Court statedl that a bag containing £14-7 was found behind a radiator under which a rat had been seen to run. The bag was left by James, the night porter, who asked to bo allowed to Tesume duty next morning. Five pounds had been abstracted from tho bag, and James, whon arrested 1 , confessed thiat James Sharman and William Fell concocted the burglary, ho supplying tho impression of the safe key in a cako of soap. The three men havo been remanded. , On May 28 last, two night porters at the Berkeley Hotel, Piccadilly, were found bound, gagged, and wounded, and a large safe was found to have been cleared of jewellery. Four men, so tho 6tory _ went, entered an unlocked garage early in the morning, subsequently crossed an iron bridge, climbed a firo escape ladder, and entered a window in the hotel. They then crept along tho entrance hall and struck Towots, a ponter, from behind. When he wag unconscious, they bound and ,gagged him and flung him on to a sofa. Then they attacked James, another porter, who struggled. Ho was similarly treated, and placed in an anteroom in an unconvcious condition. The burglars opened ithe safe with a key, apparently obtained from an accomplice in the hotel, and stole <£3000 worth of jewellery and money belonging to ladies in the hotel. They then descended to the basement, where they ascended by a luggage lift to the street. Towers was sent to hospital in. a serious condition.