EASY MONEY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1037, 30 July 1930, Page 12

EASY MONEY

TEARING “FIVERS” WINNING AT BOTH ENDS! Sydney bookmakers and business people have, in the last few weeks, been duped by a gang of five pound note mutilators who, it is estimated, have cleaned up about £3OO. The ingenious system adopted by the gang is to tear the ends from five pound notes. When the larger portions are presented at a bank they are exchanged for whole £ 5 notes. The torn off end, still showing half the number of the original note, is then expertly joined to a torn £1 note. When folded over with the fiver end on top the finished job resembles a genuine note. This is presented to a busy bookie just before the start of an event. The man who utters it asks for £1 on his fancy. Profit is £4 The unsuspecting clerk stuffs the spurious note into his bag and hands the man £4 Change. Thus, for every good fiver the crook destroys, he gets another from the bank and £ 4 for the dummy. The scheme was worked at Rosehill and Ascot and at Victoria Park. Bookmakers discovered their loss when clerks counted the bags after the racing. Business men had .. received similar forgeries while busy attending to clients.