RETIRED N.Z. CIVIL SERVANT DUPED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 234, 2 October 1937, Page 9

RETIRED N.Z. CIVIL SERVANT DUPED.

FLEECED OF £362. Falls Victim to Confidence Tricksters. LOST WALLET AND A BIG BET. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 12 noon.) ADELAIDE, this day. An extraordinary story of how he had been fleeced of £362 by means of a confidence trick, was told .to the police by a retired New Zealand civil servant.

He said he was walking in the street with an acquaintance whom he met on the boat from New Zealand when he saw a wallet which the acquaintance picked up. He examined it and it contained share scrip for £20,000, £15 in bank notes and a telegram in code to a man at an Adelaide hotel.

They rang that man, who said that as a reward he would add the £15 on their behalf to a £1000 betting commission. The horse was reported to have won and the agent of a bookmaker entered carrying a satchel apparently crammed with winnings, £4180, but said he could not pay out unless the punter had the £1000 bet in cash as the bet might not have been honoured if the horse had lost. The New Zealander handed over £302.

Later the bettar explained that, as a result of a misunderstanding, he had invested the whole of the winnings on another horse, which had lost. The acquaintance promised to refund the money to the New Zealander, who left for Perth, where the acquaintance promised to meet him but failed to do so.

The New Zealander had to borrow his fare to return to Adelaide, when he reported the matter to the police.