OREAT BANK-NOTE PLOT.

Hokitika Guardian, 7 May 1920, Page 4

OREAT BANK-NOTE PLOT.

LONDON, Feb. 20,

An amazing story came to light yesterday of how cancelled £IOO Bank of England notes wore stolen and so skilfully patched up that the. thieves succeeded in cashing them at their full lace value.

One of these notes was passed in the betting ring at Newbury races on Wednesday afternoon, writes a sporting correspondent of The Daily Mail. It is only one of many ingeniously faked notes which have been cashed in tlie belief that they were perfectly good ones, and the probability is that thousands of pounds have been netted by the authors of the plot. The details of these extensive frauds are of a very remarkable nature, adds the correspondent. Before the war all bank-notes on being returned to the Bank of England were cancelled and sent to a paper factory to be reduced to pulp for conversion into new notes. The cancellation was done by tearing off the lower right hand corner of the notes and perforating three or four holes in the centre. During the war this practice was suspended, the notes being reissued time after time. Recently, however, the old system was reverted to, and' the notes were cancelled after-being paid in at the Bank of England. Among the notes lately cancelled were a large number of £IOO notes. To the surprise of the authorities some of these notes have been paid into banks. Examination showed that the notes had been most skilfully “repaired.”

The corner torn off had been carefully replaced by a corner taken from a note of a lower value—probably £lo—and the 0 perforated holes filled in with bank-note paper so neatly as almost to defy detection. Prompt measures were taken to check the fraud from reaching larger dimensions, and it is safe to assume that it would now be impossible for anyone to cash one of these notes at a bank. Apparently, however, they are being passed at race meetings, and possibly among tradespeople. How and where the cancelled notes were stolen remains a complete mystery, nor is it known who the thieves are and where the'notes are being transformed into apparently negotiable securities.