A CLEVER IMPOSTOR.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1154, 20 March 1884, Page 3

A CLEVER IMPOSTOR.

A contemporary says :—One of those clever impostors who occasionally tarn up in colonial towns came to grief in Christchurch on Monday. He appeared in the guise of a medical man, and, as vouchers for his pretensions, he brought with him to Christchurch testimonials from several Dunedin physicians stating that for nine days, during the absence of the Resident Surgeon of the Dunedin Hospital, he temporarily discharged in a satisfactory manner the duties appertaining to that office* In Christchurch he called himself “ Dr. Tube,’ and in support of his title he used to exhibit cards impressed with that name, and which were printed in London. He honored the Empire Hotel with patronage, and treated his friends liberally, and seems to have escaped suspicion until he ran up a bill of £ls. In the meantime he lived in a manner becoming his assumed position, and was in the habit of visiting the seaside, ordering carriages and so on, for all of which he forgot to pay. As in the case of the Dunedin Hospital, a locum tenens was required for a Canterbury institution, and “Dr. Tuke” was an applicant for the position, and it is said that he was very nearly obtaining it. Suspicion, however, in regard to him arose in Dunedin, and some Christchurch medical men received communications which had the effect of blighting the “ doctor’s” professional prospects in Canterbury. He was pressed for payment of his hotel bill, and offered a bogus order for £IG, with which he wished to pay his debt and so receive the balance of £1 in return. He was told that money was wanted from him, but ultimately the order was taken and 10s extra given, The order was presented, and nothing was known of the “ doctor,” nor could the agents be found either in Christchurch or in Dunedin, through whose hands his “remittances,” were to come. So his rather brilliant career was brought to an untimely close by his being arrested under the Vagrant Act, and on Monday he received three months as a rogue and vagabond. It is known that he bad not been long in Dunedin, and that in the ship in which he came to the colony he was known as “Mr Francis,” When arrested there were found in his possession three pleading letters, which showed that imposing on hotelkeepers was not the only wrong he had done since his arrival in the colony. It is supposed that he is not a physician himself, but is the son of a well-known medical man in London, and that it was his father’s cards he used for the purpose of supporting his assumed titles and character. When arrested by Detective Neill the “ doctor ” very naturally professed great indignation at the M outrage” to which he was being subjected. '