"THE SWITCHER."

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 303, 23 December 1939, Page 7

"THE SWITCHER."

MASTER GEM THIEF.

TRAPPED BY YARD MAN.

CAUGHT WITH EX-CONVICT.

(Special—By Air MalJ.)

LONDON, November 25.

"The Switcher," cleverest man in Europe at substituting fake jewels for valuables, and an Australian confederate have been trapped because of the intuition of a young Scotland Yard detective.

The detective was told by officials of the London Safe Deposit how they had| been robbed of £600 worth of jewellery by a "switch"—a case filled with waste

paper was substituted for the case containing the gems. Though the detective had never seen "The Switcher," he recggnieed the method. And when the master thief went to his Bloomsbury lodgings the police were waiting for him. He was taken back to the safe deposit and identified.

This week at the Old Bailey "The Switcher" was sent to penal servitude for three years. The Yard records showed that for years he has been known to the police in almost every country in Europe. He has been expelled from Belgium, Italy, France, Austria, Prague and Cairo. He has been convicted in Copenhagen, Berlin, Leipzig, Paris, Trieste, London and Leicester.

In the dock with him was Albert Brown, aged forty-two, jewel thief and ex-convict from Australia, with a record going back twenty years. Brown was with "The Switcher" when they went to the Safe Deposit, and helped to distract attention while the switch was made. He, too, was sent to penal servitude for three years.