ROGUERY ON RACECOURSE.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 February 1920, Page 6

ROGUERY ON RACECOURSE.

A SIMPLE "CONFIDENCE TRICK.'-' INCIDENT AT NEW PLYMOUTH. The story is now revealed of a simple example of the "confidence trick," which was carried out on the New Plymouth racecourse on the second day of the races on Thursday. The methods employed seem too simple to be effective, yet sufficient "confidence" was established to induce ons man to part with ,£lO and another £6. And this is the ea'sv way it was done,' Three men—two of them posing as the joint owners of a certain horse and the other as the trainer—got into conversation with two pther men—a resident of New Plymouth and a country visitor —and for these two men the trio drew a pretty picture of how "their horse" Was going to win as a rank outsider and pay a sensational dividend. It sounded good, and the New Plymouth man produced £lO and his friend pro* duced £O. The party then broke up, one of the trio taking the money to "invest," but exactly where he invested it is not known. The story ended as all such incidents on a racecourse might be expected to do—the trio unostentatious* ly disappeared. Yesterday morning Detective Fitzgibbon arrested a man named Thomas Buchanan on suspicion, and charged him with vagrancy. He was brought before Mr. T. A. B. Bailey, S.M., at the Police Court, and he was discharged on con* dition that he left New Plymouth for Auckland by the quickest ?route.