A PIG IN A POKE.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 17997, 14 February 1924, Page 2

A PIG IN A POKE.

SYDNEY RESIDENT DUPED.

A MYTHICAL RESTAURANT.

(special to "the psess.")

AUCKLAND, February 13,

Hov a man threw up a Government position in Sydney and mortgaged his furniture to buy a restaurant in a large factory district with an unknown Maori name in Auckland, only to find the whole affair was a fraud, wlis the tale told by a passenger who landed from the Makura when 'he arrived at Auckland from yesterday. The victim of the alleged fraud gives his name as Cecil Ernest Ebenezer Brittdl, and states that he was employed in the New South Wales Taxation Department in Sydney for about 13 years. He said ho was a married man with one child, and his wife was in Sydney. According to his story, he let a room in his house in Sydney to a man who said ho was a doctor. The latter indicated that he was not in practice, but was a wealthy grazier from New Zea-

land. The doctor boasted of also owning extensive property in the Dominion, including a largo restaurant in Auckland, where 200 factory employees dined at one meal. He named the restaurant, which apparently does not exist. The , doctor, said the new arrival seldom went out, but smoked cigars all day and studied a medical book. He confided to the man and his wife how he had prospered in New Zealancf, where he had also practised as a solicitor. He stated that in one deal he had made £BO,OOO. On another occasion, when he had successfully fixed up some business for a Maori, the native had presented him with 6000 acres of land. When the doctor had gained the couple's* confidence sufficiently, he suggested that the husband should purchase' t)io restaurant in Auckland. He could have it for £2OOO. As the husband only had a part-share in £245 worth of furniture and a little money, it was eventually settled that the doctor should take the furniture as an equity of £IOOO in the restaurant, and the husband should come to Auckland and take over the business as manager, and pay the remaining £ 1000 with interest at 6 per cent. The furniture, is was asserted, was then made ' over to the doctor, who took out a third-class passenger's ticket in the Makura for the husband, but under another name. According to the husband's story, his wife apparently doubted the gonuinencss of the doctor at the last moment, and informed the Sydney police. It is asserted that the police and the wife went on board the Makura, but could not find the husband owing to his having been booked on board under an assumed name, and j the husband did not know his wife had | been looking for him until the Makura I was at sea. Continuing, he said his i eyes began to open to the possibility ' of a swindle when he received the following wireless message from his wife, the Makura then being in the Tasman Sea: "Come back by nc-xt boat. Doctor cleared out. Badly taken down."

Before leaving Sydney, it was asserted that the doctor had given the husband a letter of introduction to the manager of the fictitious restaurant, and had stated that the supposed manager would meet the Makura at Auckland, or, failing that, he was to be found at a certain Auckland hotel. No man as described by the doctor met the husband at Auckland. Instead of now being manager of a large restaurant here, the husband says he is practically penniless. In the way of proof of his story, the husband has the wireless message from his wife and a cheque for £47, which he said he received from his Department as his share of his annuity when he resigned his position.