SMILED AT SENTENCE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5470, 4 September 1929, Page 4

SMILED AT SENTENCE.

ADVENTURESS ARRESTED. POSING AS A PEERESS. With an extraordinary criminal record, an adventuress who, born of humble parents, had at various times posed as the wife of a wealthy Irish peer, the owner of vast estates, and the daughter of a South African K.C., received with a smile a sentence of 12 months’ hard labour passed ipon her at Windsor Quarter Sessions. Her case had aroused considerable interest, and the Court was crowded with people anxious to listen to the lifestory of this remarkable woman. Giving the name of Alice Barbara Plunkett, 39, she was found guilty on a series of charges of obtaining goods and clothing from Windsor tradesmen by false pretences. Arriving in the royal borough prisoner met a well-known local business man, and by stories of her wealth induced him to marry her. The woman had declared that she was the daughter of a Durban K.C., owned estates in Kent and Norfolk, and possessed three motor cars which she had left in a London garage. The woman, witnesses proved, entered into an agreement to purchase Ambleside, a large residence in Windsor, for £l2OO, and had promised a Mr Plunkett that when he married her she would settle £5OOO on him. She made elaborate preparations for the marriage feast and the. wedding cake, and drinks consumed at the reception were the subject of one of the charges — When prisoner’s mother entered the witness-box prisoner appeared greatly amused, and laughed throughout the evidence, which proved that the woman was in reality the daughter of a labourer, and that witness’ husband was not a major or a director of a company in Norfolk, out a farm labourer.

The chief constable, in revealing the chequered past of a Plunkett, stated that she was born at .rlethersett, Norfolk. She attended school until 12 years of age, when she entered domestic service. She married Frederick Harvey, a foundrymar, at Hethersett, in February, 1907. He served as a private in the Norfolk Regiment during the war, but contract.d influenza while serving in France and died in December, 1918. There wore six children of the marriage. Two are in service, one in a home, and two are boarded out by the Henstead guardians. In 1916 accused associated with a single man, and in January, 1’317.. she was sentenced to three months’ hind labour for neglecting her children, and her allowance from the Army authorities was stopped. On her release from prison she went into service at the Army canteens. On December 7, 1920, she was convicted at Aylsham and ordered 28 days and six week’ hard labour, concurrent I !’,, for stealing a postal order, household linen, and jewellery. Tn December, 1922, she was sentenced to three months’ hard labour at Clerkenwell. for theft. She next received six months’ hard labour at Hampstead, in June, 1923, in another name, for stealing silver articles and clothing. She then associated with a man. This man eventually left the district in which he was living, heavily in debt, and went to reside in another place. Accused then wrote a letter, apparently of a blackmail type, to the man’s mother. This matter was placed in the hands of solicitors, and prisoner was warned that if she wrote again the police would be informed. In December. 1924, accused was arrested at Tunbridge Wells for stealing jewellery from a private house where she was employed as a cookhousekeeper. For this offence she was sentenced at West Kent Quarter Sessions, to 12 months’ hard labour. Prisoner had then posed as the wife of a wealthy Irish peer, and pretended that she had estates in the Argentine and Ireland. At this time she had a child of about 13 montns w'.tn her, and he was sent to Per/oury Poor Law Institution. Accused was next heard of by the police at Golders Green, where she was employed as a cook-housekeeper. She was arrested there on two charges of stealing clothing and books, and in September, 1926, was ordered six months’ hard labour. Prisoner, on her release, entered other employment. Representing herself as a woman of wealth and the owner of a motor car, she obtained wine and spirits, prtending they were for her master. Next she obtained a situation at Muswell Hill, where her services were dispensed with for making a false accusation. In March, 1929, prisoner secured further employment as a cook, but only stayed a few days owing to small articles being missed, and her general unsatisfactory conduct. Finally she was in a low financial slate as live pawn tickets were found on her at the time of her arrest. She went to Windsor owing £3 15s rent and several tradesmen’s accounts. Prisoner, concluded the chief constable, seemed to have lived a life of fraud, and was a persistent liar. Accused handed in a statement in which she suggested that she had intended to pay for the goods obtained by her, but had been arrested shortly after the conclusion of her honeymoon. She did receive money from a friend, and she had got cars, but she would rather be shot than upset his home. “My lips are sealed ; 1 am shielding a friend,” she added. Prisoner appealed to Judge Sturgess to take into consideration the fact that she had been in prison for five weeks. “I will certainly do that,” replied his lordship. Proceeding, he stated that it was a very bad case, and the least he could do was to send prisoner to gaol for twelve months with hard labour. She was led from the dock all smiles.