A FEMALE IMPOSTOR. Extraordinary Frauds.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2258, 27 December 1886, Page 2

A FEMALE IMPOSTOR. Extraordinary Frauds.

A case came before the Fitzroy Police Court, Melbourne, the other day, which exposed an extraordinary series of impositions by a woman. The accused, Mrs Mary (Jrant, a well-dressed woman of about thirty years of age, answered to three charges of obtaining money and goods by false pretences. From what transpired during the hearing of the three cases, it is supposed that the prisoner has victimised at least 100 persons in the suburbs. In the first case investigated the victim was a jeweller at Coburg, named August Frettling, fro-n whom' she obtained goods to the value of £28, giving valueless cheques in payment. The swindle was curried out in a most elaborate style. The woman drove up in a hansom cab to a local bank and purchased five allotments of land from Mr Thomas Fischer, the manager, for which she gave her cheque (valueless, of course) for £7-50, and received a clear leccpt for that amount. With the deeds of sale thus procured, she drove on to Frettling's, an.i induced him to go with her to a contractor named Pobjoy. and an architect named Nunn, with whom she agreed to have a villa built at a cost of £700. Before leaving she obtained £f> in cash from Pobjoy, her own cheque for that amount given in exchange being marked by Frettling. The cheques in this instance were drawn on a bank in Carlton, upon the manager of which she had called and asked to have a sum of £'250 transfeired from Samlhust to open an account in Carlton. She wrote out a cheque for that amount, paid it in, wrote her name in the signatme book, and received a cheque book, for which, as well as four telegrams from Sandhurst, the manager had to pay himself, as the deposit in the Sandhurst Dank turned cut to be a myth. The victim in th'i second charge was a Fit/roy pawnbroker named Da* is, who not only gave her jewellery and other goods to a large amount, but also £3 10a in money, all paid for by valueless cheques. In the third case a widow lady named Maria Smythe was imposed upon to the extent of £30. To this lady the prisoner offered to sell a house in Moore-street, Fitzroy, on remarkably easy terms. The purchase money was to be £80, of which £20 was to be paid down as a deposit, and the balance at £'2 per month. To catry out this farce the prisoner took Mrs Smythp to a lawyer's ollice, anil gay c instructions for the conveyance of the house to her, but she could not produce the deeds, and hor description of the property was vague, so that the lawyer declined to transact tho business. Mrs Smythe, however, paid the £'20 deposit. One of the witnesses in the latter case, named MoKredel, a grocer, stated that prisoner had obtained goods to the value of £Ijo from him, tho cheques she give him being dishonoured. Mr Fischer ap peared for the defence, but did not attempt any j and the prisoner was committed for trial at the enduing general sessions.

Mr 1), Elliott, cabinetmaker, &c, Hamilton, notifies that 10/al proceedings will be immediately i<\ken for the recovery of nil aoQountc duo to him nut p.iid by Thursday next.