Spendthrift's Faked Baronetcy

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 201, 26 August 1939, Page 8

Spendthrift's Faked Baronetcy

FEAR of going to prison upset the poise of 28-year-old Mark Levy as he stood in the dock at Manchester City Police Court.by the side of his wife, his senior by 21 years, "and heard himself described as a "plausible waster and spendthrift" who had run through a fortune of £8000 in two years. Levy, arriving early on a Sunday morning at a Manchester 'hotel, posed as a knight, and ran up & bill of more than £6, mainly for expensive drinks. The management was impressed by the title, and asked no questions. When the bill was presented in the presence of the police, who had called his bluff, "Sir" Mark Levy could not pay, and admitted that he was just plain Mark Levy. In the dock he assumed a dignified demeanour, but when it became obvious from the remarks of tlie stipendiary magistrate, Mr. J. Welleslev Orr, that he was ,sroi;>g to gaol, Levy pleaded: "I'loase don't send me to prison." As the magistrate continued to speak, Levy closed his eyes, clasped his hands, and appeared to be muttering a silent prayer for deliverance from anything which might involve hard work and discipline, for it had been his boast that he could live without working. His prayer was of no avail, and he almost reeled when the magistrate told him that he would go to prison for six weeks in the second division for false pretences. His wife, Dora Levy, who was charged w T ith him, was bound over. She declared that she genuinely believed she was "Lady Levy," and that as she had no hand in signing the hotel register she was not guilty of the offence. Detective-Sergeant Stainton told how he challenged Levy m Piccadilly, Manchester, and asked him for his proper name. He said he was "Sir Mark Levy," and that he was on his way to the bank. At the hotel, in the presence of the manager, he persisted in his pose of being titled. When the officer told him not to be foolish, he admitted: "I am just Mark Levy." When the woman was sent for, she said: "I am Lady Levy. That is my husband, Sir Mark Levy." On being charged, Levy said: "It is my fault. It is not my wife's at all." The address in Manor House, Marylebone Road, London, given by Levy, was said to be actually the address of his

brother. His own last address 'was Crantock Court, Hagley Road, Binning-' ham. • Sergeant Stainton stated that" in two years Levy and his wife had spent £8000, mostly on drink. The brother would have nothing to do with, them, even though ho made Mark Levy an allowance of £3 5/ a week. "He is living at the rate of £6 a day," added the officer, who said that the bill which was the subject of the present case had been run up in less than 24 hours. Levy asked for another case in relation to a Birmingham hotel to be taken into consideration. Work Did Not Appeal to Him "It is true you have been in a good position and had a good deal of money, which you squandered," the magistrate told Levy. "But now you are living on your wits. It is quite clear that work probably doesn't appeal to you." A few minutes after they had been parted in the dock Mrs. Levy went out to l>uv cigarettes and a newspaper for her husband. She said that when Levy came out of prison they would try to start all over again, with a small business. Mrs. Levy described how she met Levy—heir third husband —at a party. At the time, in the name of Doris Bliss, she had a number of millinery shops in Birmingham which formerly belonged to her second husband. "Mark took very little interest in tho business," she stated, "and we spent a preat deal of time on the Continent. Wo lived like millionaires. He had an expensive car and a valet. We gambled, and then the business in Birmingham bepran to go down and was wound up. Mrs. Levy said that her husband "was always a bit of a lad." "We were married in London just before the Coronation," she continued, "and we lived in a flat in the West End for some time, and always had gay parties. After we had been married some time he said to me: Tou knowthat real% you are Lady Levy,' but ha did not want to disclose the details, and I believed him."

Since that time, slie declared, she hai pawned most of her jewellery, which was worth hundreds of pounds. Mrs. Levy, who was proud of the fact that Mark shouldered the blania for the offence which brought hrm into the dock, believes that there is good in him, and that, given a fresh start, they will be successful once more.