A LONDON SWINDLER MEETS HIS DESERTS (FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.) London, November 2.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 430, 21 December 1889, Page 6

A LONDON SWINDLER MEETS HIS DESERTS (FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.) London, November 2.

You will, 1 daresay, remembsr my mentioning the case of an unfortunata New Zealander named Lewis, who, when times were bad in the colony, came over here with his wife, hia family, and a litble money they had saved, and fell into the hands of an advertising swindler named Elson James Humphreys. This wretch, upon engaging Lewis as secretary to a bogus company, induced him to entrust him with his money as security. The coin, of course, was never returned ; and Lewis, when he tound his wife- and children starving, committed suicide, ctming with his last breath the heat bless swindler whose villainies had brought him bo this terrible pass. The case attracted a good deal of notice, and directed the inconvenient attention oE the police to Mr Humphreys, with the result that on Monday morning last he stood in the dock at the Old Bailoy, charged, with a whole series of frauds. A " Star " man, who was pre&ent, &ays :—: — Some months ago a young married man named Lewis shot himself in an oiiice in Fleet-street, bitterly cursing with his dying breath Elson James Humphreys, the man who iiad brought him and his fami'y to destitution by his cruel fraud. Humphreys, jingling in hi 3 pocket the gold which should have saved young Lewis's wife and little ones from homeless starvation, doubtless laughed to himself whun he reflected on "the immensely superior capacities of gold ovei curses, bub anyone who saw him this morning could not tail to foel that the dying victim's revenge had come. Before the web he had spun had been brushed on one side by the criminal machinery, Humphreys held his head as high in the City as his moie reputable brethren in the company-promoting line, but to day he stood in the dock at the Old Bailey a blear-eyed, bedraggled,

MISERABLK-LOOKIXG WIIIXIXG CIiBATUIIL' He had pleaded guilty to an indictment charging him with obtaining £75 from Alfred Crimp, £100 from Major Knightley, £80 from Charles Moon, and C6otrom William Charles Mabey, and he was now up before the Recorder (Sir T. Chambers), to receive sentence. Mr Gill, appearing on behalf of the Public Prosecutor, said this was an exceptionally bad case, the facts being moso diftresbing. Ib was one of those cases where a man of considerable ability concocted a traud, which must have taken a very considerable amount of trouble to elaborate. He pre tended to start an institution called the Beaconsfield Young Men's National Athenaium, in respect of which he issued a piospectus, in the drafting of which

Much Litkkajiy Ability yna^ Displayed. It was by means of this pretended institution that he was enabled to swindle the different people he got into his clutches. This Beaconsfield Institution was to be a place where evory kind of social improvement was to be encouraged, where every effort was to be made to benefit the using generation, and where art, commerce, literature, religion, science, and the social advancement of the people were all to be looked after. Under the guise of doing all these benevolent things, the institution issued a pamplet, sotting forth the names of persons of distinction who had lent their names to it. Confidence was thus established in the minds of the persons who afterwards came into contact with Humphreys. After manufacturing the pamphlet, he got an address in Sergeant's Inn, and proceeded to issue advertisement& for clerks and collectors, the object aimed at in the pamphlet being

To Oktain £150,000 from the public tor the building and endowment of this institution. For the purpose of obtaining this money, he proposed to engage a number of collectors, and accordingly very skilfully worded advertisements were inserted in the daily papers. In his first interview with the candidates who answered his advertisements Humphreys pointed out how enormously important it was that their honesty should be secured, and as large sums of money would pass through their hands, they would have to guarantee their honesty by depositing with him certain sums as secuiity. He represented to these candidates thai, apart altogether from the ques tion of this institution, he was a man of large means himself, living in his own house and possessing adjoining property. As soon as they had parted with their money, Humphreys paid their salaries for two or three week?, and then ceased. Inquiries arose at to the accounts of the institution, because aparb from the sums he obtained as security, as much as £123 had been collected

Mil LeOI'OLD ftOTHSCIIILD (JONTRJIJUTIXU £20. The would-be collectors who had parted with their money security, made every appeal to try and induce Humphreys to disgorge. But they could get neither their money nor anything further in the way of salary. The , police ascertained that Humphreys was a man who had recently come out of pri&on, after doing twelve months. So far from his being the benevolent indi- \ idual he represented, it was then discovered fchat he was engaged in another enterprise of the same description, which he called the Great Britain Co-operative and Indus trial Printing and Publishing Company (Limited). It was in connection with this scheme that the young man Lewis was defrauded by him of £150, with the result that

He Kuj-ld Himseli 1 . Here the prisoner, in a tone full of abject terror and misery, interrupted to say that, if the learned counsel would put in Lewis's agreement, it would be seen that the agreement was not with him (Humphreys), but with the firm of financial agents who financed the company ; and, moreover, the agreement was not to deposit money, but to invest so much in the shares of the company. But, for the editor of, and an article in, the paper, which was a disgrace to journalism (the ' Financial News } will doubtless feel that abuse from such is praise indeed) the company would have been a great success. He (Humphreys) and his 3on had brought

Ax Action Fob Libkl against the paper, and that article was solely intended to thwart the action he was bringing. With regard to such bills of his j as were about, a3 soon as his sentence ex- j pired he intended to take them up 'as a matter of honour.' The * Recorder ' said the mere failure of the scheme would hardly be a fraud. JMr Gill stated that had the case been heard, he had proof that the prisoner never intended to start the institution ; but the prisoner's plea of guilty prevented him callinar such evidence. Meanwhile the prisoner was violently grasping at the hope which the Recorder's remarks had raised in his breast, and was whining all soi'ts of excuses. Detective-sergeant Outram was called to speak to the prisoner's career. He had \ ascertained that some yeai % 3 ago Humphreys I kept sevoral public-houses, and had also

been connected with a Sunday-school. In a diary found at his house 'there were written morning and evening

Pkayjsrs Beautifully Worded, and a temperance pledge. In most cases he had to deal with, this olficer said, he generally found somebody with a good word to say for the prisoner, but in this case he could not find one single person with anything to advance to the prisoner's credit. The prisoner here complained that things had been said about him which were [nob true, whereupon JSlr Gill suggested that perhaps it would be more desirable that the prisoner should withdraw his plea of guilty, because the witnesses against him were all only too eager to tell the Court their experiences of the man. Tho prisoner declined to withdraw hia plea, however, alleging that he was too ill to defend himself. He protested that if Lewis had not been so impetuous he would have got his money back, and a&serted that he should,

Ik it Pleased God to spare his life, repay every liability he had undertaken. The Recorder sentenced him to only 15 months' hard labour. {Several people asked whether the Recorder did not say years, hardly crediting their ears ; and the prisoner himself Beemed to be agreeably surprised at the leniency his despicable whining had inspired in the Recorder.