BARING BANK ROBBERY.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 142, 16 June 1888, Page 3 (Supplement)

BARING BANK ROBBERY.

A Notorious Criminal.

At the Manchester City Sessions lately, a man named John Prescott, but who has

several aliases, was placed in the dock on a charge of stealing a bag containing £1,241 12s lOd. The circumstances of the robbery were of a sensational character. A clerk from Ashbury's Carriage Works drove up to the Manchester and County Bank on the morning of the 16th ult. to draw money to pay wages with. He obtained the sum named in a black bag, which he handed to the cabman, who placed it on the seat ineide the cab, and then waited for the clerk, who had gone into the bank again for more money. As soon as the bag was placed in the cab, the prisoner, a gentlemanly-dressed man, went up the other side of the cab, and although it was mid-day and in a street where there were plenty of people, he tried to take the bag through the window, and it being too heavy for this to be done, he deliberately opened the door and seized the bag and made off with it. The robbery had, however, been seen, and several people gave chase to the prisoner, who dropped the bag when he found himself in danger of captnre, but was quickly, arrested and taken back to the bank in the 3ame cab, and driven to the police office. A crowd of people cheered the cabman as he drove off with his prisoner. Prescott pleaded guilty. A detective said the prisoner had been convicted in London of a robbery of diamonds, and there was a long list of convictions against him abroad. He had been convicted in Paris and New York, and in the latter city was known as Johnny Curtin. He had also been concerned in some jewellery frauds in Manchester. Prisoner said he came from Toronto. He denied any conviction except that in London, and said he was trying to get an honest living by selling jewellery up to the time he committed the robbery. The Recorder sentenced him to five years' penal servitude and three years' police supervision.