FALSE TOTE TICKET.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2400, 4 March 1922, Page 3

FALSE TOTE TICKET.

A CLEVERFRAUD. An individual whose ingenuity might be of some advantage to the public generally if turned into more legitimate channels, has evidently set to work in a systematic effort to rob the officials who run the totali-

se tor. On the first day of the Dannevirke meeting it was discovered that a sum in the vicinity of £IOO had been over-paid. A scrutiny of the tickets revealed the fact that in a number of them the official stamp had been cleverly imitated as to be almost a facismile of the original, and it was only by the closest scrutiny that the fraud could be detected. It isquite natural that in the hurry of paying out the fraud was not discovered at the time. The extraordinary thing about the matter seems to be that the firm which runs the totalisator at Dannevirke was similarly victimised both at Ashhurst and Foxton, while so far as is known many other meetings were favoured by the operations of this enterprising crook. Of course, the modus operandi is

unknown except to the person or persons working the swindle, but it apparently, is very clever. It is surmised that the operators purchase a ticket on various horses soon after the machine opens, and in some mysterious manner manufacture the forgeries—cheek stamp and all —in time to present them when the winners are .declared. Just liow or where .it is done is their secret, but an enclosed motor-car is mentioned as a probable locale, and the theory is that a facismile of the tic-

kets is carved on cork, and so true is (he i*epresentation that'it is only by the keenest scrutiny that the variations between the fake and the genuine ticket can be observed.

Then; there is the additional safeguard of the colouring of the ink used in the secret check, but even this bad been so successfully imitated as to baffle detection except under the ‘closest observation.

Many attempts have been made in the past to rob the “tote,” but the present, scheme has been the most perplexing and costly to those who liavc'fo foot the bill. —M. D. Times.