A BOGUS HEIR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 77, 7 March 1916, Page 6

A BOGUS HEIR.

ARRESTED IN AUCKLAND. ON CHARGE OF FALSE PRETENCES, In Auckland .on. Wednesday afternoon Detectives Cullen and Sweeney arrested on a charge of false pretences a. man named James William Palmer, aged 6S years, who had, it was alleged, obtained £37 from a firm of solicitors in Auckland on representation that he was a man of wealth,' * and had fallen heir to a • legacy of £76,000. The charge on which Palmer appeared before"Mr F. V. Frazer, S.M., next morning As that be-! . tween January 28 and February 29,! with intent to defraud, he obtained sums of money aggregating £37 from Reginald lieher Skelton by representing that he was a man of wealth and had bank drafts, but was unable to get possession of them owing to his wife- being detained at Taihape by her mother's illness, whereas in fact, he was not a man of wealth, and his wife was not detained as stated, and had no such bank drafts as stated. The allegation is that Palmer represented that by the death of an uncle he had fallen heir to £76,000, and he had married a young wife. For the benefit of her health, he said, he decided to.leave llangiora and . visit Auckland, but on the way .the •wife's mother, who was travelling with them, took ill, with the result • that his wife and her mother were detained at Taihape while he came on to Auckland, overlooking the fact that the wife had the bulk of ' his money, in bank drafts. Palmer, it is said, talked about buying a large property in Auckland, and about opening a trust account' of some thousands, when his wife and cash arrived, with a firm of solicitors to whom he was introduced, and, pending the arrival of the aforesaid cash, ha obtained a number of advances of sums ranging from £3 to £l2 to. cover his personal expenditure mean- . while. When arrested on Wednesday he had only 36s 6d in cash on him. Palmer, to whose name on the charge sheet was added the alias William Armstrong Hawson, was. remanded for a week.