EXTRAORDINARY ATTEMPT AT FRAUD.

Evening Post, Issue 276, 27 December 1865, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY ATTEMPT AT FRAUD.

On the 22nd July last the following advertisement appeared in the North British Advertiser :—" Wanted, a permanent person to go to America to take possession of an estate. A copy of the title deeds will be given. Apply at Mr. Rattray's, 7, Overgate, Dundee." To this there is reason to believe a large nnmber of replies were made. From the applicants one from this city (Glasgow) was selected, who was informed by the advertiser that he was deemed a very suitable person as regard? qualification and abilities. A correspondence at once 'took place. The first two or three letters received here had no signature, and their peculiar and disjointed composition otherwise having suggested the belief that the statements they contained were in the Baron Munchausen .style, the matter was placed in the hands %ii Mr. Miller, of the Guardian Society^ with a request for advice and assistance' The advertiser, who in a subsequent letter signs '• M. E. C. Rochester," and in another " E. M. C. Rochester," goes on to explain that she is the heiress of an estate in America, which is situated 350 miles from New York, near Rochester Vale, and bounded by the Genessee Valley, that it formerly belonged to Mr. David Rochester, son of Mr. David Rochester, minister in America, who died and left the estate to her under several -conditions, one of which was that she should assume the name of Rochester; that the two trustees were appointed to see the wishes of the deceased carried out, both of whom are new dead ; that the estate for want of a proper person to look after it, had been "shut up" for two years, and it was for the purpose of rendering it remunerative that a person was now wanted to take charge of it ; that that the property is worth £50,000, and a person understanding the cultivation of land would, in the first year, clear for himself an income of from £600 to £700, the extent or boundary being two miles in length and breadth ; tea, wines and perfumery having been cultivated to a great extent, while oils were extracted from the plants. But now comes the important and essential part of the business. The lady heiress goes on to say that, in consequence of the great trust which would necessarily be reposed in the person appointed so to take charge of the estate, a sum of £100 would require to be deposited i n her hands, and security given for a like sum — the deposit to be returned at the end of the first six months in the event of the person appointed proving " honourable," while his salary would be running on besides. In one of the letters referred to she states that she has chosen him (the Glasgow correspondent) out of fifty, and adds that she has just been waited on by a respectable party from Warwickshire, who had brought with him £150 in money, and £2,000 of security ; that six others had called on her with £100 deposit and £2,000 of security, but that, as they did not know so much about land as she wished, she had declined their applications, while ahe urgently requests the former to come to Dundee and have a personal interview, when the agreement would be signed and settled. It was deemed expedient that the heiress should be visited, and Mr. Miller sent • a person from his establishment to see her, and make investigation. The lady was found lodging in an attic of a four-storey house in a low quarter of Dundee. She is described as being about 50 years of age, swarthy complexion, full dark eyes, long dark glossy ringlets, prominent cheek bones, and wants some of her front teeth. Her dress is shabby genteel, and she attempts to speak with an English accent with a slight lisp. On further investigation it

was found that for several years this woman has been living on her wits, and is known to the police of Dundee as a fortune-teller and swindler ; that on 11th September, 1862, she was convicted of falsehood, fraud and wilful imposition before the sheriff and a jury at Forfar* when she was sentenced to 40 days' imprisonment under the name Helen Maria Meldrum ; that on the 14th March, 1863, she was convicted of theft and fraud before the sheriff at Aberdeen, under the name Maria Crichton or Adams. It is said that she imposed on a professional gentleman in Edinburgh by her story of the large estate, and that he made her certain advances, till, by correspondence, he ascertained the whole affair to be a myth. We hear every day of the ingenious devices resorted to by male swindlers throughout the couDtry, but it is a rare thing to meet with a female possessed of so much impudent assurance as is displayed in the case we have narrated. She has, however, quite overdrawn the picture. Who ever heard of the Genessee Valley producing tea and wines ? Though the amount of gullibility on the part of some people is quite astonishing, there is little fear that this woman's story will bring her the desired £100. Not a few, however, must have been put to inconvenience, loss and annoyance, and it is desirable that the career of this female advertiser should speedily be brought to a close.