£26,000 A YEAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 92, 9 October 1911, Page 8

£26,000 A YEAR.

A VOYAGE FROM AUSTRALIA. STRANGE ALLEGATIONS. London, August 25. A strange story was related oh Wednesday to Mr. Plowden at Marylebone Police Court by Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Foote. of New Zealand, now living at Glenloch road, Hampstead, N.W., who prosecuted Mrs. Ethel Campbell, aged 28, of South Side, Chipliam Common, S.W., on a charge of having by false pretences obtained £l5O with intent r to defraud. Mrs. Foote said she and her daughter left Melbourne, Australia, on April 18., At Adelaide the prisoner, her husband and their child and nurse joined the ship. On the voyage she and the prisoner became friendly, and the latter told her that her father was Sir Richard Hunter, of Ilorley, Surrey, who was the Lord Chief Justice of England. She was coming to England to take over property which she had inherited under her late father's will at Horley. The prisoner represented that she was coining into an income of £SOO a week. When they arrived at Plymouth, said the witness, the prisoner obtained a newspaper and ppinted out to the witness the names of some of her horses that, she said, had won races. Mr. Plowden: Did she, say where her stables were?

The witness: She told me Mr. Horatio BoUomley was looking after her horses. On June Jd, added the witness, she and her daughter stayed with prisoner at the Hotel Metropole at Brighton. They all went for a motor-car drive, and ten minutes after their return the prisoner rushed into the witness'' room and said that during her absence her room had been broken into and a great deal of her jewellery and other property had been stolen. She showed the witness a suitcase, ihe lock of which had been broken. When they returned to London, continued the witness, the prisoner reported the robbery to Scotland Yard, and next day left far Brighton. Subsequently she called upon the witness at Hampstead, and said that there had been a second robbery at the Metropole, and she had lost £l5O and all her remaining jewellery. Among the things stolen were her husband's watch and chain. The prisoner said she was unable to pay her hotel bill, and asked the witness to lend i er some money, offering her motor car as security. The witness stated that her son. having her money matters. in> hand, saw the prisoner, wlio in the end obtained from him a cheque for £l5O. A week later the witness asked for the return of the money, but witness had never paid it. Later on, said the witness, she visited the prisoner at Clapham, and there saw Mr. Campbell wearing the watch and chain he was supposed to have lost. The witness called attention to it. and the prisoner admitted' then that she had told her wrongly. Since then, added witness, she had found that the prisoner's name was Hallett, and that she had no interest in property at Horlev.

The prisoner was remanded, Mr. Plowden offering to admit her to bail in two suieties in £IOO or one of £250.