“MAGIC BOX” ARRESTS

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 130, 6 January 1939, Page 3

“MAGIC BOX” ARRESTS

CONFIDENCE TRICK FRENCHMAN LOSES £35,000 PARIS, Sept. 27.—The complaint of a- young Frenchman to the London police in June that lie had been robbed of £35,C00 by the “magic- box” confidence trick has now been followed by three arrests in Fiance. Consultations between Scotland Yard, the French Surete Nationale and the United States Federal Police enabled the French police, after three months’ work., to- trace a- man named Manuel Hayos to a leading hotel at Cannes.

Hayos was arrested, together with a woman friend, Alarcelle Lecoeur, with whom he was making a motor four. Hayos' is said to have made a statement. Later a banker, Robert Lacan, was arrested in Paris.

£6003 Recovered. The police have recovered £6600, which had been deposited in English notes in a Cannes bank. The complainant is the heir of a rich French business man, whose name is withheld by the police l . Ho states that- he was introduced to two individuals, who told him casually that they l had just perfected a wonderful apparatus which was guaranteed to “double” any bank uoces that were “treated” by it.

To prove their statement to the young man, who remained sceptical, the men produced their “magic box” and a banknote was placed inside it. A catch was released and two identical notes appeared through a. slot. The young man was so impressed that it was not long before ho lmd been well and truly “fleeced.