YOUTH’S £50 DEMAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 620, 23 March 1929, Page 10

YOUTH’S £SO DEMAND

BOOKMAKERS THREATENED Frederick Maurice Matthews, aged 20, a. salesman, and Leonard Frederick Mayston, aged 17, clerk, were charged at ’the Old - Bailey, London, recently wftfh demanding £SO with menaces frjom Alfred Cope, with intent to steal. Mr. Walter Framton, prosecuting, &aid Mayston was formerly a clerk in ,*the employ of a commission agent. On 'December 18, Messrs. Cope, turf accountants, of Imperial Buildings, London, received a letter signed “Call Boy,” demanding the sum of £SO, and threatening that if the money were not paid information would be given respecting the firm’s alleged nonpayment of the betting uix. Messrs. Cope informed the police, and on December 19, in accordance with instructions given in the letter, an advertisement was inserted in a London newspaper asking where “Call Boy” could be met. The following day Mayston telephoned to Messrs. Cope saying lie could not make any appointment as he was very busy, but he was sending a man to the office with a letter. Matthews later called with a letter which asked for £lO or £ls to be paid on account. The Recorder, Sir Ernest Wild. K.C., sentenced Mayston to eight months’ imprisonment in the second division, and postponed sentence on Matthews until next session, when, he was told, he would be liberated. The Recorder commended Messrs. Cope upon their action in promptly communicating with the police.