A FEMININE FRAUD.

NZ Truth, Issue 144, 21 March 1908, Page 7

A FEMININE FRAUD.

DIDDLES DOZENS OF DRESSMAKERS.

Doris, of the Dominion,

Dungeoned.

(From Sydney "Truth."')'

Doris Harris, giving; her age as 23, and describing herself as a barmaid, has been the polioe sensation of the past week. Doris's specialty is the confidence trick, which she has been working on a lavish scale, and with great success— that is, so far as getting possession of what she was ater goes. The retention of the booty, unsuspected or unapprehended, was quite another matter. The articles respecting which Doris was for the most part concerned m the exorcise of her ,- ' PURLOINING TENDENCIES were hatsj. blouses, and other things !of feminine adornment. What Doris's precise object was m getting these— I whether it was to wear them, or pawn them', or otherwise dispose of them — has not been made clear. The presumption is that it was to turn them into cash. Doris was up at the Water Police Court on Tuesday, and the following day she had a further charge to answer at the Central Police Court. "Is there anything known about her ?" asked Mr Pay-, ten, S.M., at the latter Court. Doris .had just been accused of getr ting away with a blouse, valued at 17s 6d, the property of Minnie E. Hockey, a dressmaker, of 23-1 Castleieagh- street ; and to this she had pleaded •guilty. "Yes, v " said Senior-sergeant Davis, m re"l- to Mr Payten. "The day before she was convicted on two similar charges at the Water Police Court, o.nd sentenced to three months' imprisonment on each. The .sentences wmo .made made cumulative, with' the result that 'she' had six months to serve. I believe she is a. recent a.v\ rival here from New Zealand. Within* \ that time, however, she has be^n very active, having been " ALL. THROUGH THE CITY, and a number of the suburbs, ond there are something like' twenty cases which might have been brought against her." .Mr Payten inouiied if a«C'tMng was known of Doris's New Zealand .history. A fingerprint officer stated that prints of the woman's .fingers had been taVen and forwarded to New Zealand. Sufficient time:; had ■•; not yet elapsed, however, to permit of the Sydney police getting, a reply. "It appears that, she - .belones to Christchurc-h," added this officer. For the present offence Mr Payten sentenced her to three months' imprisonment. The three months' are to be tacked on to the six months Doris has already been sentenced to. So she has, therefore, a poultice of, m all, nine months ahead of her. As a result of the thefts : reported, to the "olice —for which. Doris is supposed to have been responsible— a~ lookout for her was being kept./, The officer who e:6t hold of, her was Plain-clothes Constable Cox,, who spotted Iver m Market-street on the afternoon of February 24. At first she laid him that her name, was "Miss Donaldson." Then she said it was "Miss Harris." She refused, to pive.her address. Cox .took her to the lockup, where she then said she had been living at 50 Flinders-street, Moore Park, with .• ' . A , MAN NAMED WALSH, and that the twq of them /passed as Mr and Mrs Walsh. Cox went to this address, where he found a hat and hat-box, stolen by Doris from the establishment: of Mesdames Tooher and Fitzgerald, of .the Strand Arcade. The hat was valued at £1 17s 6d. The evidence in 'this case showed that Doris inspected and ordered the hat, gave instructions that it be sent along to the' Arcadia Ho-, tel, whore she aliened, she was employed as a: barmaid, and assured Mesd-ames Tooher and Fitzgerald that she would there pay the messenger "for it on delivery. A messenger accompanied Doris with it to the foot of the stairs of tfae hotel. Some discussion there ensued as to the price of tie hat, Doris eventually getting the messenger to return and ask for a reduction m the price of it,, land while the messenger was thus away, leaving the hat with Doris, the latter disappeared with it. This was the game, with merely slight variations to suit the. circumstances m each particular case, that Doris pZayed all through. So far as can be ascertained, she never worked at any of these hotels. At the time she went to Miss Hockey's, it was the ROYAL HYDE PARK HOTEL which she alleged she #as at. She tried on the blouse, asked if she could take it and a messenger come over with her and get payment, and when they reached' the hotel the messenger was left outside whale she slipped m to get the money. She went m one door and out of another, 'leaving the messenger to -wait there for some time; and then to discover trhat Doris was not known at the hotel. Doris is a woman of slight stature, of scarcely medium height, with the suspicion of a hook m her nose, and neither strikdng for her good looks nor the- want of them.