CONFIDENCE TRICK

Hokitika Guardian, 9 July 1931, Page 3

CONFIDENCE TRICK

VICTIM LOCKS £3OOO.

LONDON, May 29. Arrested at Dover on his • return from the Continent,' an Australian named Wilfred Nelson (S'*), alias, Vvilliam iNanghton, was. sentenced at •Westminister on May 26th to six months’ hard labour for being concerned with another man now in custody in stealing £IBO by means of the. confidence trick from Mr Wiliam AleNaught Caven (Christchurch). Mr Caven is on a holiday visit to London -./ith his wife. Nelson’s solicitor said 'that efforts made during h’s client’s detention to secure whole or part restitution of the stolen money had been without result.

RUSE AT A SAFE DEPOSIT. An Australian visitor to London has lost £3OOO to - clever confidence tricksters after Scotland Yard had warned him that his new-found acquaintance was- thought to be olie of the ‘•confidence” gang.

While staying at a Bloomsbury hotel the visitor met a man who had "inside knowledge of coming big booms in Stock Exchange dealings. Knowing the “acquaintance” to be a man with a questionable past, the Yard asked the manageress at the hotel to warn the visitor of his danger. And it was here the confidence trickster played his trump card. The visitor told him that he had been “warned” against him, whereupon the gangster suggested the informant was probably a fraud and not a Yard man at all! He further suggested that it would be in both their interests if they approached the manageress to discover whether she was quite satisfied the man was a detective. The manageress assured them that she was absolutely certain of the officer's bona tide's, because he was known to' her.

I The confidence man turned to the Australian and said:* "The manageress is. quite sure.: Therefore There can be no doubt..that he was a.-genuine . Scotland Yard ..officer, and .it ■is up to ; you and me to take notice of the .warning. ] ihave 'a lot of money on me; so .have you, so 1 am going to put my. money in a safe deposit 'in case any of these men are watching us and might attack us.” .

The two men then went to a sale deposit in the West End, where the Australian handed to the confidence man £SOOO to put with his in the safe deposit. The confidence man walked in one door and out of another, and the Australian had to report the loss of £3OOO to the police.