Posed As Secret Service Officer

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 11, 13 January 1940, Page 3 (Supplement)

Posed As Secret Service Officer

PjjENOtJNCED by the magistrate Lf as "a Humbug," a clerk who had posed as a Service officer was given the maximum sentence of three 'months at the Southwestern .Court. : ... - He was John Thompson, 37, described as a clerk, of Hexham. It was alleged against him that he falsely represented himself to be a cap-, lain in the Intelligence Department, and further'that he fraudulently obtained £22- from Richard Francis Williams Grove. . It . was revealed , in. evidence that Thompson ingratiated himself in the Grove family by posing as an officer of the Indian Army seconded for duty with the British Intelligence. Mr. Grove, an insurance broker, related that he had business with a Mr. Warner, who'had formerly been a partner of Mr. Grove's brother.' He had deposited Consols to "the value of £500 with Warner's Bank as a guarantee against an overdraft; Thompson, whom Mr- Grove believed to be working in the Intelligence, informed him that owing to depreciation in securities the bank proposed to realise on the Consols, and suggested, that ir Mr. Grove deposited the sum of £22 the bank would not proceed. : ■' Mr. Grove' immediately handed the moucv to Tliompsoft in £1 notes. iMr* Grove's brother, a private in the R.A.O.C. and formerly a surveyor at a militia camp in North Wales, gave evidence that he enlisted in the Army but could not join his unit until his civilian work was completed. # Because of a misunderstanding in the office of the Western Command, he was arrested as, a deserter. Thompson, whom he had just met, informed the police officers that, as an Intelligence officer, he could "fix the matter." # * Thompson wore on the inside of nis coat lapel a little badge; which lie declared was ."The secret sign, ', by wlucn members of. the Intelligence Service recognised each other. Grove'' ultimately .was icleased and Thompson was paid certain money for "arranging things." Then the .Grove family became cious and. Mr. Richard Grove went 10 Scotland Yard.

Detective-Sergeant Philip Burney had another , astonishing story to tell. Tho "badge," he said, was a familiar religious ".emblem and had nothing to do with military service. In Thompson's possession he found a priority telegram couched in terms which would lead people to believe that he was in the Secret Service. Thompson admitted to the police that he had sent this telegram to himself. Thompson's only military service which the police had been able to discover was a short term as a private in a Yorkshire regiment. •> Colonel Hinchley Cooke, of M.15, declared that Thompson was not, and never had been, a member of the Intelligence Service. Thompson, who appeared in the dock with his arm in- a sling—the result, the police declared, of an affair in a publichouse—pleaded that he had once been a lieutenant in the Indian Army. * He told his newly-married wife that, now war had come, he would get his commission back and would soon become "a captain LA."

He assumed that his wife had confused "LA." with "1.D.," and that was how he suggested, people came to regard him as an officer of the Intelligence. He admitted that he had been sentenced in India to 2$ years' rigorous imprisonment for bigamy. •Mr. Claud Mullins, the magistrate, said he could not accept any of-the pleas, and sentenced Thompson to three months' imprisonment on the first, charge. The second charge was dismissed. So ended one of the most astonishing masquerades of the early weeks of the war. People throughout South-West London accepted Thompson as a highly-placed Intelligence officer. On one occasion the guard turned out for him at a military barracks. ; He so impressed the authorities at an A.R.P. ambulance <Jepot that he was ' detailed to investigate' serious losses of petrol occurring, at a number of subdepots. He hired-motor cars and drove about in considerable style. "He had the most impressive manner," said a local A.R.P. - official, "and it astonishes me to learn that he was only an out-of-wOrk clerk."