CONFIDENCE TRICK

Otago Witness, Issue 4033, 30 June 1931, Page 65

CONFIDENCE TRICK

GONVILtE RESIDENT A VICTIM SHARE IN DART GAME. WANGANUI, June 26. A sum of appproximately £2OO changed hands at the Wanganui Winter Show today, and he who parted- with it was left with the unhappy thought that he had been the victim of a confidence trick. At 3 o’clock in the afternoon the only consolation left lay in the very thin hope that he was a part owner in a dartthrowing game that was sufficiently remunerative to return him £l2OO within a few days. The victim was Mr Robert Ireland of Gonville. He was interviewed at the show by two or three young men, who, it is believed, were operating in a gang, r - ■»«■- T- n >«„.i’ o .<• ents it was •ittiered that he had been persuaded to draw three cheques at different times and for large amounts, and ’ md them over to purchase an interest in a dart-throwing venture. The show secretary (Mr F G. Seddon) tried to intervene at one stage, but Mr Ireland was confident that everything was clean and above-board He even wefit so far as to mention a man’s name, describing him as a friend from Palmerston North, who was as “ honest as the sun,” and Mr Seddon’s assistance, ■which was in the nature of offering to ring the bank and stop payment of the

first cheque paid over, was not required, as the %cheme for lifting £l2OO was quite bright. As time wore on the man to whom the cheques had been handed failed to come within Mr Ireland’s vision, and Mr Ireland was continually being treated as a guest by several young men who appeared from various points of the ground. He developed the thought that it was time that some move was made to stop payment at the bank. Detectives J Walsh and L Revell were on the scene by this time and late in the day they were acquainted with what had taken place. They succeeded in separating Mr Ireland from his insistent companions, and a word in that jrentlemans ear set the telephone ringing to the bank, and the client whose cheques were at issue was packed off in a taxi to see the manager. Alas, the counter move had been made too late, and the bank’s sorrowful advice was that the account had been reduced by about £2OO. Mr Ireland came back to the show grounds still retaining a flicker of hope that the investment was a good one. but his friends were exceedingly dubious.„ He searched “ sideshow alloy ” for a man with a felt hat, a peculiar collar, and a face he would remember in a thousand, but he was nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile the police are believed to be " in the know ’’ and it is believed that an arrest will be made.