POSED AS A CLERGYMAN

Bush Advocate, Volume XXIII, Issue 281, 6 December 1911, Page 3

POSED AS A CLERGYMAN

I'ec«ii'tiy a. waiter who po.-ed as ;;■ elergvmaii • appea.red' in the dock at tolldon Ses>i(nis, and -pleaded guilty ti obtaining money by false pretences and to attempting to obtain, money by fraud. He gavo his name as John' Roberts and his uge as 22. Detective-Sergeant Rate! iff o proved a. number of eoiivictionts for fraud, and stated that the prisoueir wias wanted by the Portsmouth police. One of the incidents in his career i';efer.rcd to a. young lady with whom he ■had been keeping company. Rep.re"•■.entinig that he w.a.s a clerk in ■holy orders and was going to pireaeh >at Si. Paul's Cathedral, he induced !lvwr to pant with, a wmtchi ius withotit one. he said, it would be "difficult to know about the time of the sermon." "I have been, to eighteen, places."" continupdi the officer, "whe.ro ho has attempted to obtain or '.has obtained money by fraud, representing that ho wnis sent by the Bishop of London, to seek apartments for curates. On. account of the enormous nuntbeir of complaints the 'Bishop communicated with tho police. Tho prisoner demanded' money front boarding-hotise keepers, promising in return, to advertise their home* in. tho panis'li magazine and making them known to tho curates." Mr Wallace sonten'ced .hint to 12 months' imprisonment-