YOUTH’S FRAUD

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 7, 4 October 1943, Page 3

YOUTH’S FRAUD

Honoured As Hero In Home Town SY'DiNdIY, .September 30. A youth who escaped from a detention home in Sydney and stole a military 'uniform was publicly honoured in his home town, Jiinee, western ■’.ew South Wales, before the fraud was discovered. He was serving a senleiice'for a criminal oilcnee at the time of his escape. Stealing A.I.F. shorts mid shirt from a soldier who had bung them out Io dry, the youth also took his identification disc, chewing it till the details were too blurred to be recognizable. Wearing the uniform, the youth who was subject to fils, collapsed in a Sydney street and was taken Io a military hospital, treated, and discharged. In a new uniform which had been given him, he look another fit while in the train en route to Junee. Removed to an air force hospital by an ambulance, which travelled 30 miles to pick him up. he eventually arrived in Junee. There be was given a presentation by a local patriotic committee. Shortly afterward he was arrested at a local dance hall, and was returned to the detentiou home from which he had escaped. Military authorities doubted if it would be possible for u man to be treated and discharged at a military hospital without the fraud being detected, but Junee citizens Touch for I,he. accuracy of tbe story.