GIRL’S FRAUDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 May 1938, Page 4

GIRL’S FRAUDS

NIGHT CLUB HOSTESS TRAIL OF VALUELESS CHEQUES Looking little more than a child as she stood in the dock at Marylebone, London, an attractive girl nonchantly shrugged her shoulders as the Magistrate declared: “You look such an innocent, yet you are a danger to the West End. You will go to prison for six months’ hard labour.” The girl, a 23-year-old “bottle-, party” hostess, was said to have passed under several high-sounding names, leaving a trail of “dud” cheques behind her. In an alleged statement the young woman, fashionably dressed, Joan Scott Taylor, related how she met a Mr Boris Pecker at the Nautical Club and accompanied him to his flat for tea. She took six cheques from a book lying on a table. She admitted' the charge of stealing these cheques and also other charges of obtaining or attempting to obtain clothing to the value of £25 8s 9d from Harrods, Selfridges, and Messrs D. H. Evans. She asked that 15 other cases, involving £73, should be taken into consideration. Mr Ray Whiteway, prosecuting, told an amazing story of a “perfect trail” of “no-account” cheques, which the girl had left behind her since the end of last year. On December 30, he related, at Harrods, she obtained a coat, worth £9 19s 6d, giving the name of Miss Jennie Wilson, and the fashionable address of Brook Street. She paid by cheque. The same day she got ladies’ underwear, worth £7 17s 6d, and other articles worth £3 14s 6d, from the same firm with two more cheques. All three cheques were dishonoured.

At a later date she obtained shoes valued at £5 0s 6d from Selfridges, in the name of Miss B. Scott-Wood, of The Lodge, St John’s Wood, and on the same day obtained from,,the same firm stockings and material, valued about £l3, with other cheques which she “flooded” in the store.

Next day, February 14, at Selfridge’s again, posing this time as Mrs FitzHerbert, of St James Street, the girl obtained underwear to the value of £4 2s 3d, paying by cheques drawn on a different bank. On February 15 she visited three stores. She went to Messrs D. H. Evans and got four handbags, giving the name of Miss J. Moreton, of James Street, S.W. That proved her undoing. As she proceeded through the store she gave her address as St. James Street. The James Street address was then looked up and found to be nonexistent. A store detective, Miss Garrod, was informed.

The girl was questioned and told the handbags would be sent on to her. She left the'store and Miss Garrod followed, but lost her in Sloane Street. The girl was later stopped by a policeman as she left another store. She was taken to the police station and charged with stealing cheques from Mr Pecker. Mr Whiteway declared she then made a statement, describing how she had stolen the cheques, and others, and had used them to obtain goods, some of which she sold to friends and acquaintances.

She told how until about three years ago, she worked as a saleswoman in gown shops, and then as a hostess in various West End clubs.

“About two months ago,” she continued, “I was with some people who were discussing how easy it was to get cheques from people and obtain goods with them. It struck me as being very simple, so I thought that at the first opportunity I would try to obtain some cheques rayself.”