DARING BANK ROBBERY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 280, 20 November 1908, Page 4

DARING BANK ROBBERY.

A CLEVEII KOGI'E. GETS AWAfc WITH £2OOO. LOXDOX, October 2. A series of daring swindles in London banks has just come to light. i\o fewer tflun nine branches of the Loudon and South-Western Banking Company have been victimised to llio nine of over £2U«O. Xlte method adopted was the same in eaeli ease :—The oranclies were duped by means of a forged letter of advice from the llarlesden branch, notifying the transfer of an account of £750 standing to the credit of u client. , A Lloyd's News representative learned the full story from the manager of one of the banks concerned, who said : ••(In Tuesday morning, together with twelve other branch managers, received by tlie lirs't post an advice note apparently si 1 fit by tiie manager of the Harlesdeii iirancli. Tlio latter, which bore what I believed to lie ilie manager's signature, but uii:i-li was a forgery, advised inL- Uuu lii.! auiu of £l.">o standing to the credit of .Mr David .Samuel Windell had been .transferred to my branch. The letter added that Air Wiudell would call upon ine in the course of a day or two. " Hoon after my bank opened on the Tuesday, a rod taxi-cab drew up outside, and a man dressed in black, and wearing a dark overcoat and top hat, stepped out aad entered. "He said:—'l am Mr Wiiulell." X asked him into my private otlicc, where lie signed the signature book twice—once with his full name and once with what purported to be liis usual signature, David S. Wiudell. "Jb'inding that Hie signaturo tallied with the specimen which I had received with the advice note, I handed him a cheque-book and a "paying-in book. "The man opened the cheque-book, and, taking a pen from the ink-stand, wrote out a bearer cheque for £290, handing it over to me, saying, 'I will take £2OO in small bank notes and the balance in^gold.' " The cashier paid over the money, «nd tho man, after carefully counting it, put it into a small handbag wiiicn he had with him, and shaking hands with me, said, ' Thank you ; good day.' lie th'en left the building, eatcreij the taxicab, and was driven off." , JSiglit other branches named worn victimised in the'same way by the gentleman robber, who in each case adopted the same significant cognomen. The taxi-cab drew up outside, there was a brief interview with the manager, and the visitor left with a cool £2llO in his pocket. The four other branches nc-i not visited.

There are some peculiar circumstances connected with the robbery which point conclusively to the fact that the swindler must have had a confederate with ail intimate knowledge of the working of the London and South Western hanks,

Eaeli of the letters of advice contained the secret code word of the bank for that week, although at the time the forged letters were posted—the Holiday —it had only been in use a few hours. It is evident that there was more than one person concerned in the daring fraud. Three probably shared the spoil —the actual forger, the cool individual who made the taxi-cab tour, and another who must, it is contended, have been an employee of the bank, it was the last mentioned wlio prob-

ably supplied the advice slips, the envelopes, embossed with the bank's mime, a copy of the signature of the manage.' at (lie llarlesdcn branch, and the stamps perforated with the b.'rlrk's mark. As to the secret code word, that was secured, it is asserted, by rilling the letter-box of one of the branches. Several letters were opened, and their contents, including some cheques, torn to pieces. The letter containing the code word for the day was taken away by tire thief. Why the swindler contented himself with only drawing C2IKI from each bank when he could just as easily have had C7OO seems a mystery. An ollicial of one of the branches stated that in all the history of the bans fraud the fraud just committed was the smartest. " It. was so simple yet so daring," he said, "and might easily happen again to-day, because something like 1800 advice letters an: sent out to various branches daily, and so far as 1 can see there is absolutely no, possible way of preventing such a swindle as this being sprung upon any bank.''