BANK TELLER ROBBED.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 April 1921, Page 6

BANK TELLER ROBBED.

A VERY CURIOUS STORY. Sydney, March 15. There are some very remarkable circumstances about the loss by Cyril Sidebottom, a teller in the Bank of New Zealand, Collins Street, Melbourne, of some £2OOO. Sidebottom telephoned the police on Sunday week that he had been robbed of £lBOO belonging to the bank. His story was that the previous the bank’s strongrooms had been closed and the keys taken away, he discovered £lBOO in notes in his desk which had been overlooked. Rather than take the risk of leaving them there, he put them in his pocket —they were of a large denomination—and left the bank. He went to the races, betted modestly and returned home by train. That night,’ he placed the notes under the on which he and his wife slept. About 2.30 a,m, they were awakened by two men, one of whom held up the couple at the point of a revolver while The other searched the room and found the notes. They then decamped with the notes.

.The police made inquiries. They found, first, tha’t the amount missing from the bank was £2129; that Sidebottom had made large bets at the races— £4OO to .£lOO, £2OO to £5O, and £5OO to £lOO, the last one being successful; that he had given a racecourse tipster £3O; and that he had returned by special motor and hot by Sidelbottom was thereupon arrested. Up to then there seemed no unusual circumstances, except that Sidebottom was an old and trusted servant of the bank.

But the detectives continued enquiries info Sidebottom’s story of the midnight robbery, and within a couple of days they arrested two men—James

Surrey Gain, a commission agent, aged 32, and Leonard Bartlett, a younger man. Mr. and Mrs. Sidebottom positively identified Cain as one of the men who took the £lBOO ffom under the mattress. ,

At the present, all three men are under arrest —Sidebottom charged with robbing the bank and the. other two .with robbing Sidebottom. It is a very curious position, the most puzzling thing being the difference between £2129, which is missing from the bank, and £lBOO of which the teller says he was robbed.