WITH WEST END GANG

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 258, 21 January 1928, Page 10

WITH WEST END GANG

BEAUTIFUL GIRL’S FOLLY

Said to be connected with a wellknown country family, a pretty girl of 19 figured in a strange story told to the Marlborough Street (London) magistrate. She was Josephine Gordon, alias Mary Whitaker, of Charlotte Street, W., and she pleaded guilty to obtaining by false pretences, a leopard-cat coat, worth £25, from a New Bond Street firm. Detective Harold Faiers said that Gordon tendered a cheque for the coat. The cheque was returned marked “No account.” He thought she had been acting for members of a dangerous gang. She had only recently got into their clutches and had been a tool in their hands. The coat had been recovered as the result of information she had given. Mr. C. Grobel (defending) said the girl was married when she was 16 in Santos, in the Argentine. She had been accustomed to very good living, and she married a man in a very different station of life. She drifted toward the West End, and she made the acquaintance of a villainous woman who led her astray. He had a man in court who, with his wife, would take charge of the girl. The magistrate said he was going to do his best to prevent the girl from drifting back into crime, and he should bind her over for two years, with Miss Costobadie as probation officer.