MOTOR CAR THIEVES.

Otaki Mail, Volume XXIII, 8 December 1920, Page 4

MOTOR CAR THIEVES.

SECRET OF LONDON GANG. ] After weeks of patient enquiry and i search, the London police believe they j have discovered the secret of a'gang of expert thieves, whose operations , have caused the mysterious disappear- | ance of a number of valuable motor ■ cars. The revelation was made in Westminster Police Court, when three East End chauffeurs —Henry Giles (3-), Arthur .Skinner (28), and Thomas Robinson (IS) —were again remanded on a charge of attempting to steal a Talbot car, worth £750, from a garage in Buckingham Palace road. t James Kenealy (33), an engineer, , was also charged with being concerned j in the attempt, and with having incited Albert Cheeseman, chauffeur to . the owners of the car, to aid and abet in the robbery.

According to the police, the gang worked in parties of three. One man took the driver’s scat in tho ear to be stolen, all ready to drive off, and a second man was at the wheel of another car, with engine running, which was in close attendance. The tliird man set tbe engine of the "victim" car going, and then dashed for the waiting car, with the result that the whole party were ttwuy before any suspicion had been aroused. In the present, case, explained Mr Vernon Gatti, who appeared for the police, it was further alleged that the chauffeur of the Talbot car was met casually in the Grosvenor Hotel buffet by another member of the gang, and enticed, with a promised bribe of £2O, j to leave his charge unattended for a , short space of time. The chauffeur j informed his employer, and thereafter j acted under police instructions until j the detectives made their coup, jj Kenealy, who was accused of ata tempting to bribe the chauffeur, was .j said to have boasted that he belonged to a gang of the biggest motor thieves I in' London, "who don’t care a damn if j Scotland Yard knows it." He added, A "They can’t catch us." j! There were several meetings between this man and the chauffeur, and t the car was seen in its garage by Kenealy, who said, "Wo will have her before the week is out and have her across the water. Acting on this knowledge, the police laid their trap, and on August 12 were in waiting when the gang disclosed their methods, and were pounced on just as the two cars were about to race away. Cheeseman, the chauffeur of the Talbot car, declared that Kenealy told him, in the presence of Giles, that they (the gang) could get cars out of the country in 12 hours. In a trip to Walthamstow, Kenealy showed him a car which he said they had "knocked off," and also pointed out a motorcycle and side-car standing outside a publicbouse near Loughton, saying, "This is another we have got." Giles had previously said to Cheeseman: "Yon stick io him (Kenealy) and you’ll never lie short of money."