A Bogus Countess.

Manawatu Herald, 10 August 1899, Page 3

A Bogus Countess.

» HOW SHE CARRIED OUT HER SCHEMES. At Clerkenwell sessions a few day." igo, Beatrice Leslie Maynard, aged _8, music teacher, was convicted of iiaving stolen a purse and the sum >f £1 B*3 7d, belonging to Charlotte Bruton, a lodging honse keeper, of STower-street, and a cape and ring, worth £1 s*, tha property of Julia Fownsend, an attendant at a lava ;ory in Waterloo Road. Mr Symooons proseouted, and Mr Purcell un iertook the defence of the prisoner it the suggestion of the Court. , Maynard is an attractive, well educated woman, who has suffered 12 md 18 months' imprisonment forde frauding boarding-house keepers and posing as the " Countess of Leslie," " Countess St. Lisle," and " Lady Beatrice Maynard." After ber release from prison pVip drove almost Uaily up to Scotland Yard, and asked bo see Detective-sergeant Fuller or mother officer. This, said counsel, Vas most fxfcraordinary, her object apparently being to seek admiration if her smart appearance, her jewellery, or the carriage and pair. Shp bad victimised nearly all tha Westend jobrmasters, as well as bilking cabmen. Under the name of •* Mar. uhioness de Somerville" she at tetopted to obtain high- class station, cry and plates with coronets engraved on them from a West End Bna. Her real objeot in driving up $& Scotland Yard in hired and unpaid for oarriagep. said Ber^eant Puller, was to in°pire confidence in the person who accompanied her, and Whom she wished to dupe. She had represented herself as tha wife of a detective in ff -int of apartments,

as her husband had gone rotlnd the world after some criminal, and had so obtained lodgings at different places. His Lordship said Maynard had acted with a great dpal of canning and effrontbry, and had carried her frauds out with ability, fl-iwever, inquiries woti'd be made now and next sessions concerning her, and sentence would be postponed.