NEW FACE MAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 127, 30 May 1940, Page 22

NEW FACE MAN.

DARTMOOR ESCAPEE.

LIVES IN SOHO FLAT BODYGUARD PROTECTS HIM. LONDON. "Ruby" Sparks, the man who escaped from Dartmoor on January 10 and created a record by remaining at liberty for 14 weeks, has been living in a flat in Soho. Ho has another "hide-out" at Slough, Buckinghamshire, where one of his closest friends, a smash-and-grab raider, recently took a house. The two men have been seen together in Soho clubs and public-houses. A man who knows Sparks and his associates well gave me this information yesterday. I have every reason to believe his statement, states a "Daily Herald" reporter. This man, whom I will call Mr. X, (.old me that Sparks paid £2.50 for a plastic surgical operation which has entirely altered his facial appearance. The operation was performed bv a man known to crooks as "The Doc."

"The scar on his right cheek has been removed, aiul something has been done to his eyebrows, which makes him look a different man," Mr. X told mc.

"For some weeks now he has been living in a street just off Piccadilly. He lias made frequent trips to Slough, where ho lias stayed for two or three (lavs at a time."

While a special Scotland Yard squad detailed to search for him has been combing West End criminal haunts, Sparks has been seen almost nightly in public.

He is always one move ahead of the police.

Recently picked Yard men raided a Solio club. Sparks was there, but lie made his getaway with a few seconds to spare.

Someone had "tipped him off."

Sparks is accompanied by a bodyguard wherever he goes. Their job is to warn him of any trouble brewing.

If ho-goes into a club one of them is left "on guard" in the street. His men are posted at back entrances to the premises.

Police "narks"—criminals who will sell information to the police—have been offered good rewards for information leading to the capture of Sparks. Nobody has dared to "split."

"Some have been threatened with violence if tliey dare open their mouths to tho police," Mr. X told me.

Several recent big jewellery raids are said to have been the work of Sparks. He is believed to be planning more. An identification parade was held at Bow Street police station yesterday to try to pick out men concerned in a Regent Street smash-and-grab raid a fortnight ago.

The police think that if they track down the men concerned in that raid they may secure information which will lead them to Sparks.