MAIL BAG ROBBERY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 25, 31 January 1928, Page 19

MAIL BAG ROBBERY.

MAN FROM NEW ZEALAND.

JURY STOPS CASE.

AT CLOSE OF DEFENCE

PRISONER ACQUITTED.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON", December 16.

When the defence was heard at the Old Bailey in the case concerning the robbery of a mail bag containing 10,000 in currency notes during transit by train from Cardiff to London on February 2 of this year, the jury stopped the case, and the prisoner, Joseph Foster (44), a clerk, of Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, was acquitted. He had been charged with stealing and receiving £1000, the property of the Postmaster-General.

loster, in the witness-box, stated that he was a native of New Zealand, and came to this country in 1911. He married and lived in Merthyr Tydfil. He stayed there in the house of a Mr. Roberts, who carried on a commission agent's business. He had a share in the business, which failed, and in 1922 he went to race meetings in Wales and the West of England, chiefly making a book on the course in the name of Roberts.

At the end of 1925 he took an office in Haverfordwest, and started a football coupon betting business in the name of Uiomas Brothers. There was another man in the business named J. Thomas, a Swansea man. In that business he was known as Thomas, and in that name he had stayed at hotels in London. Sir Henry Curtis Bennett (defending) referred to the changing of Treasury notes into banknotes by Foster with a bookmaker named Chandler, and asked, In travelling round the country making a book do you get a large number of lreasiiry notes?" Foster: \es, a great many. Sir Henry: Ihe betting business seems to be rather a source of danger. The Recorder (Sir Ernest Wild! K.C ) • Ready-money betting; the other sort'is a source of revenue. (Laughter.) Fostei taid that shortly before the Cesarewitch of 1926 he received what lie considered was good information about M} ra Gray from a commission agent at Newport. " Racecourse Success. He told Chandler he thought it was a good thing, and he went to the race at Newmarket and won just over £400 on the course. Myra Gray was returned at fifty to one, but on the course one could get from fifty to one hundred to one. He also won £IS3 on an ante-post bet on Mvra Gray. The day previous to the Cesarewitch he had won £80 at Newmarket on a French horse. He lost a few pounds later, but his winnings for the week were over £600. By February of this vear he had accumulated £1100 by further betting on the course, and he decided to open a starting-price office in London for the flat-racing season. During the winter he had given up the football coupon business. On February 2 he came to London to see Mr. Chandler about the starting price business, bringing his £1100 with him. He travelled along from Cardiff by the 6.30 train, and he never went anywhere near the locked van where the mail-bag was kept. Reaching Paddington, he went to the Strand Palace Hotel for supper, and he afterwards stayed at the Grantlv Hotel in the name of Thomas, the name by which they knew him there. The next j day he saw Mr. Chandler, who said that £1100 was not much for a starting price business, and suggested he should have a partner. He offered to allow him to use his office until he could be fixed up. Foster said he opened a banking account with £1000, and arranged about an office, but was advised that owing to the betting tax the startirg price business was no good, and he gave up his idea. Returning to Merthyr, he decided to go with his wife and child on a visit to his family in New Zealand. His father, who was u clergyman, died in October, 1925, but his mother and sister were still living at Hamilton, New Zealand. He gave full particulars of where he was going before he sailed. ° He arrived in Auckland on May 17, and found the friends who met him very agil/tted. They asked him what he had been doing, as the New Zealand police were inquiring for him. He said he knew nothing about the matter. He stayed at the place to which he had said he was going, and was not arrested until June 7. Had he wished to go to Australia he could have done so, as no passport was required from New Zealand for a British subject. .He did not oppose extradition, and returned to this country in charge of the captain of the Ruahine. On arrival he wag arrested and handed over to Detective Sergeant Peacock, of the Post Office. Mr. Pcrcival Clarke asked on crossexamination why Foster had not explained in New Zealand that he had obtained the money which he had by successful betting. Foster: On the advice of the best counsel in New Zealand I made no statement. Did you want to come back to this country?—-I was anxious to face this eliaige after all the publicity given to it on the other side. The fact remains that until to-day this defence has not been raised?—l did mention in conversation with inspector Ward, of Wellington, that I got the money by betting. "Good Enough For Merthyr." Foster denied that he was shabbily dressed and "down and out" just before the robbery. Mr. Clark: Were you well dressed?— 1 was always decently dressed. The Recorder: Good enough for Merthyr Tydfil?—Certainlv.

lroster admitted that an hour or two after Mr. Chandler had changed his Treasury notes into banknotes he opened a banking account.

This concluded the evidence, and Mr Clarke addressed the jury for the prosecution. Sir Henry Curtis Bennett had begun his speech for the defence when a juror rose and said he thought the jury had come to a decision.

The Recorder: You cannot come to a decision now unless you are unanimously in favour of an acquittal.' The juror replied that he thought they were, but two other members of the jury declared that they had not made up their minds, and would like to hear the summing-up.

The Recorder said there was little doubt that Foster could have been- the thief, but our law insisted that a man must be proved to be a thief. The case could not be proved unless the jury were unanimous.

The jury asked to be allowed to retire, and five minutes later they returned with a verdict of not guilty. Foster was discharged.