CARS SET ON FIRE

Evening Star, Issue 23368, 11 September 1939, Page 8

CARS SET ON FIRE

CHAUFFEUR'S CRIMES ARSON AND FORGERY Suggestions that the I.R.A. was responsible for arson at Oldlands Hall, Uckfield, Sussex, the home of Sir Bernard Eckstein, were made by the former head chauffeur, Frank Charles Cecil Henry Gold, at Lewis Assizes. Gold was charged with , stealing or converting to his own use about £SO of his employer’s money, forging a receipt and maliciously setting Are to his employer’s garage, a car. and a motor van. He pleaded not guilty. Mr Geoffrey Lawrence, prosecuting, said that when the fire was discovered the words “ I.R.A. Strikes ” wero painted on the garage doors. Gold said that his desk had been broken open and a camera, a typewriter, and £4O taken. The police considered that Gold was the only person who could have been responsible for the fire. MONEY LOST AT SEA. In evidence Gold said that while travelling to France he fell on tho boat and an envelope containing £ls of his employer’s money fell in the

sea. He was afraid to tell Sir Bernard, and resolved to scrape the money together to replace the loss. On the night of June 4 he was in bed above the garage when fie heard someone close the garage door. A minute later there was a small explosion.

He roused the second chauffeur, and they found the cars on fire in the garage. The £4O taken from his ransacked desk included money he had scraped together and other money belonging to his employer. Hold was found guilty of fraudulent conversion, forgery, and setting fire to the cars, and not guilty on the other charges. He was stated to have_ several convictions for larceny, chiefly of motor cars, breaking and entering, fraud and false pretences in Australia and England. Mr Justic Branson sentenced him to three years’ penal servitude.