CLEVER SWINDLER

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 311, 26 August 1932, Page 6

CLEVER SWINDLER

LIVES BY DEFRAUDING KINDLY CHRISTIAN SCIENTIST. A LIFE OF LUXURY. How a man defrauded Christian Scientists of more than £6000 and lived a life of luxury the proceeds for nearly three years was revealed at the Old Bailey, London, lately. His crimes were mostly self-confessed, and he described them in such detail in a written statement that this document was referred to by counsel as an 'Odyssey of Crime.' With his ill-got-ten gains the man travelled about the country, staying at the best hotels. There was nothing in the appearance of Alfred Marsh, aged thirty-five, described as a larfdscape gardener, of no fixed abode, to suggest that he was the swindler. Prosecuting counsel said that the best description of Marsh's activities was to be found in his own statement. According to that, over a period of three years he had obtained about £10,140. Method of Getting Money. Marsh's principal method of getting money, went on counsel, was to approaeh Christian Science practitioners, and prey upon their credulity and charity. He pretended that he had a big lumber business in Ameriea, and that ha desired to return there to look after the business and pay wages. In one case he sueceeded by his plausible story in getting over £2000 from a woman Christian Science practitioner. With the money he obtained, Marsh' travelled round the country in luxury. Knowing the amount of good Christion Scientists did in Ameriea, he went to a number of practitioners in Britain, and said that he had come for spiritual guidance and comfort. By gaining their sympathies and by making various representations he got large sums of money from them. Having a "Hectic Time." A police officer declared that with the money Marsh bough clothes, went to race meetings, and had a hectic time. On one occasion he visifced Scotland and shot and fished at a large estate. He also obtained money from a minister and a bookmaker. While staying at Scarborough at the same hotel as the New Zealand cricket team he obtained £200 from different people, and he secured £12 from a Harrogate chambermaid under a promise of marriage. Marsh worked for a time in lumber camps in Ameriea, where he was married and had fiYe children. He had not seen his wife since 1927. The name of the woman from whom Marsh obtained over £2000 was not disclosed. She stated at the police court that Marsh came to see her at Christmas, 1929, in the name of Lansdowne. He said he had a lumber ranch in Mississippi, and showed her a cable about It. He added that he needed money to pay his men and keep the mills going, and she advaneed money to him from time to time. She received what purported to be an order on a Mississippi bank to repay hei £3000, but it was never met. Marsh afterwards wrote to her: "You believed me to be God's good man, but I am a rotter and a cad, and I cheated a good woman with lies."