LOVE TWICE JOLTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 73, 27 March 1929, Page 23

LOVE TWICE JOLTED.

MOTIVE IN TWO STRANGE CASES.

LED TO FORGERY IK OWE

INSTANCE

iiifIDfCTIOX CHARGE IX ANOTHER

(From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, March 22.

Til- olil French injunction to look for th" lu.lv when crime is committed holds goo.l in most instances. It may not be' particularly applicable, but in two cases in which -trance features are predominant, handled by Sydney detectives this week, there was a strong love interest, ami the motive in lx>th instances was iiiid..nlitodly of the ladies' Btfri-tions. In niip are concerned a youth and a piil. They had been keeping company for iihiitit twelve months, and they wanted to marry, though neither is more than IS years of age. Finance, of course, wa? the barrier; but with love a? an incentive, the young man conceived a brilliant scheme to gain a nest cpg. It was due to the fact that the execution of the scheme was lacking in tine.-se that another mysterious crime is not listed for detection. The girl, an expert typiste and stenographer, took a position in a large Sydney insurance office. The first day she was employed there, she stole a cheque from the company's book—one of the la-t cheques, the loss of which would rot lie discovered perhaps for a week. She also gnt hold of the two signatures to make the company's cheques negotiable, and these were traced on the cheque form by both the girl and the boy. They were, of course, excellent imitations, and when a cheque for £310 was presented to the company's bank, the ledgerkeepcr had no hesitation in certifying them as correct. But the astute paying teller noticed that the body of the cheque was filled in in a boyish handwriting. That was unusual, and he took it to be particularly signi-iic-ant that a palpably nervous youth, holding a girl's hand, should present •uch a cheque. He held it up for a moment while he telephoned the firm. The manager rushed to the bank post-haste, and the girl left as soon as he appeared. She was caught and held by a traffic policeman. The youth, was still there when a detective arrived, and he confessed that their intention was to get married and take a trip on the £310 if the scheme had come to fruition. An Abduction Charge. Customs officers and police combined to spoil the second romance, as a result of which a married man is held on a charge of abduction, and a girl not half his age is charged with vagrancy. The story opened a fortnight ago, when a girl of 18 presented a single ticket to Vancouver, and asked for a passport to travel by the Aorangi. Customs officers pointed out that she would not be allowed to land in America unless she had a return ticket. She soon returned with that, and in reply to questions said that her father was dead, her mother lived in Melbourne, and she was travelling on a visit to an American uncle, a clergyman. The passport was issued. But the night before the Aorangi ■was to sail, the Customs men were telephoned anonymously and told that a man named was leaving for America by the vessel in company with a girl he was abducting. They immediately realised that the only girl must be the one who was travelling to see her "uncle." They put the matter in police hands. Neither the man nor the girl had given their correct home addresses, and, with only hours to work in, the police failed to trace them. But they kept the boat ender surveillance and assured themselves that neither sailed. As a matter ©f fact they obtained a rebate of their passage money within ten minutes of the boat's departure. A fortnight elapsed before detectives •ould get into touch with the man, and •ven then they had no knowledge where the girl was staying. They questioned the man about his passport, and, big doubtless that his innocent explanation of why he did not sail was all they wanted, he led them to a flat at Raddington, where they found the girl in■talled, living, they claim, as his wife. At the detective office she created a dramatic scene, claiming, in the face of definite information that he was married and already had a family, that she loved him and would stick to him no matter what transpired.

Her attitude was such, in fact, that to ensure her attendance as a witness in the case, the police were compelled to charge her with vagrancy. The man was charged wrth abduction. He told the police that he went to the Aorangi, Kaw a number of police about the wharf, became scared and bolted with the girl. He faces also a charge of wife desertion, his wife claiming that he has not ■upported her or their family for many months past.