AMAZING "RACKET."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 170, 20 July 1935, Page 4 (Supplement)

AMAZING "RACKET."

CROOKS FALL OUT.

POLICE CHIEF AS GANGSTER. DENOUNCED BY ACCOMPLICE. Imagine the leader of a band of crooks operating in the London suburbs obtaining without inquiry into his past the position of secretary to the chief of the police in charge of the C.I.D. Then you get an idea of what is the outstanding feature of the new police scandal that has staggered the French public, coming as it does 011 the top of so many other scandals of the same sort. It has to be remembered, furthermore, that in France such an official deputises for his chief, and may be in charge of the inquiries into the crimes that he has organised. The "hero" of this latest affair is a young man named Eugene Guichard, who was arrested after being denounced by one of his band. He made a full confession, according to the examining magistrate. Guichard first came under police notice six years ago, when he was arrested as a deserter from his regiment and for stealing the motor cycle of his sergeant. Nearly a Murder. He received the nominal sentence of twelve months, with benefit of the First Offenders Act, and this conviction, figuring in his "dossier" ought to have for ever closed an official post to him.

Two years later he and his three accomplices entered the house of an old man living alone in a village near Grenoble. After binding and gagging him they made off with all the money they could find. Their victim came near to dying from the treatment he had received. The local po.iee were convinced of the guilt of Guichard, but while they were collecting evidence to justify his arrest he disappeared.

Two years ago he came back to the region, and without any questions being asked was appointed to a good post with the municipal gas works. A year afterwards the post of secretary to the police chief fell vacant, and without the slightest inquiry into his past, Guichard was appointed.

Installed in his office, he at once searched for his three accomplices, and from time to time gave them "jobs" to do in the region, informing them of the movements of the police so that they could avoid being disturbed in their work. He even invented excuses for diverting the police patrols to other areas to facilitate the activities of his gang, one of the most active members of which was his younger brother.

Even Blackmail. Blackmail was levied on cafe keepers and others who had not kept within the letter of the law, and when some of these victims complained they were seen by Guichard and told that if they persisted with their complaints they themselves would be prosecuted for attempted corruption of officials. Garage keepers were forced to present cars to Guichard and his brother, and all manner of trades people were made to deliver goods free to the gangster police secretary, under pain of finding the police vigilance on their business intensified.

Whispers of these activities came to the chief of police, and, jinknown to Guichard, he cancelled the instructions the latter had given for the diversion of the police from the area where a "job" had been planned. One of the gang was caught red-handed burgling a house, and he denounced Guichard.

All four are now under arrest, and an official inquiry has been ordered in the hope of detecting the highly-placed official or officials who must have connived at the appointment of the police secretary in the first place, and protected him afterwards.