BOGUS "ANZACS."

Taranaki Daily News, 17 January 1916, Page 5

BOGUS "ANZACS."

.MISTAKES MAGISTERIAL LENIENCY. London, December 7. The unauthorised wearing of military ftnd naval uniforms, occupied with the swindling of hotelkeepers, tradesmen, and others, ought to be at this present juncture an offence calling for the most drastic punishment. Our dispensers of jnstiee,' however, do not as a rule seem to appreciate the gravity of this particular class of oll'ence in war-time, and) more of ten, than not only award to offenders sentences which they would not hesitate to give to persons guilty of; minor thefts. The result is that'not' only London, but all England, is now ovor-run with men in uniforms, which' thoy have no right whatever to wear. Some don them to gratify a peculiar form of vanity only, but th e majority have an eye to other things than men "swanking," as the records of our polk-e courts exclusively prove week ' after week. "Swank'' and swindling usually run in .'harness, but now and \ then the unauthorised uniform wearers > have had more sinister designs than the mere cheating of tradesmen, and have been proved to have worn them in order to facilitate their efforts to obtain information from bona fide soldiers. At the present time the Australian Rnd New Zealand uniforms appear to be, unduly favored by "swankers," swindlers and the like, and the bogus "Bar*, dandles hero" is very much in evidence,' in the Old Country, One was bowled out a few days ago. This was Srio Douglas Graddon, who found himself charged at Westminster Police Court wlth'being an unauthorised person wearing a military uniform with intent to deceive; further, with falsely representing himself as belonging to the Australian contingent. A detective said prisoner, staying with a lady who' was not bi 3 wife, had ruiuup an account of over £25 at the hote&t Westminster, where they were staying. Prisoner's usual attire was the slouch hat, slacks and overcoat of Australian pattern. When ai> rested and told the charge, Graddon said: ''lt lis quite right. I've no rigbJb to wear the uniform."

WHAT THE " TEC " SAW. Detective Cillard., the unexpected witness, who was Attending the Court with regard to Army dependents* fraud cases, said tlmt oarly in September he was staying at the White Hart Hotel at Brighton, and lie there saw prisoner, who was passing as the invalid husband of "a big, flashily dressed woman." Gordon, who was wearing khaki clothes, gave out that he had been "knocked out" in the Dardanelles by a wound in the stomach, but Detective Gillard was sceptical at the time, at accused was "'pretty active in the billiard room." (iraddon, in his evidence on oath, ad' mitted that he was at the hotel at i Brighton, 'hut denied the story of the Dardanelles, stating that he only said that he had been kicked in tlio stomach by a horse. He had served, he stated, in Paget's Horse in South Africa, and on the outbreak of the present war he enlisted at Sydney, but was discharged as medically unfit. As a matter of f*ct, he made two attempts to serve whilst in Australia, and on the second occasion he received his discharge' when he had become sergeant in the Light HorM. He was perfectly willing to enlist DOW it they would take him. But the Army has no particular use for men of O.raddon's kidney, and, anyhow, he won't be available for the next 1 four months, that being the term of imprisonment a very lenient magistrate apparently considers a punisfiment to lit this swindling "swanker's" crime. Such a sentence appeals to men ' who I know the real mischief this class of person has done, is doing, and will continue to do, as being an example of mischievous magisterial leniency. Something stiff in the way of sentences would be more appropriate.