A BOGUS HEIR

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 53, 2 March 1916, Page 6

A BOGUS HEIR

ARRESTED IN AUCKLAND. ON CHARGE OF FALSE PRETENCES. Yesterday afternoon Detectives Cullen and Sweeney arrested on a charge of false pretences a man named James William Palmer, aged 68 years, who had, itwas alleged, obtained £37 from a firm of solicitors in Auckland on representation _)3.t he was a man of wealth, and had fallen heir to a legacy of £<6,000. The charge on which Palmer appeared before Mr. F. V. Frazer, S.M., this morning was that between January 28 and February 29, with intent to defraud, he obtained sums of money aggregating £37 from Reginald Heber Skelton by representing that he was a man of wealth % and had bank drafts, but was unable to get possession of them owing to his wife being detained at Taibape by her mother's illness, whereas in fact, he' was not a man of wealth, and his wife was not detained as stated, and had no such bank drafts as stated.

The allegation is that Palmer represented that by the death of an uncle he bad fallen heir to £76,000, and he had married a young wife. For the benefit oi her health, he said, he decided to leave Rangiora and visit Auckland, but on the way the wife's mother, who was traveling with them, took ill, with the result that, his wife and her mother were detained at Tu-hape while he came on to Auckland, overlooking the fact that the wife had the bulk of-his money in bank drafts. Palmer, it is. said,' talked about buying a large property in Auckland, and about opening of trust account of 6ome thousands, when his wife and cash arrived, with a firm of solicitors to whom he was introduced and, pending the arrival of the afore^ said cash, he obtained a number of advances of sums ranging from £3 to £12 to cover Iris personal expenditure meanwhile. When arrested yeetcrday he had only 36/6 in cash on Jim.

Palmer, to whose name on the charge sheet was added the alias William Armstrong Hawson, was remanded for a week.