£224,000 Swindle At Store

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30576, 20 October 1964, Page 19

£224,000 Swindle At Store

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, Oct. 19. A man, described by a defence witness as a “sort of Robin Hood,” has been convicted at the Old Bailey in a case in which Harrod’s, the London store, was said to have been swindled out of nearly £224,000. Arthur Edward Prince, aged 40, an employee of Harrod’s, had pleaded guilty to 20 charges of obtaining cheques totalling £20,000 by forged invoices.

Prince was sentenced to five years’ gaol.

The police said he had asked for 316 other cases to be considered. The total amount, together with the cases in the indictment, came to just under £224,000 during a period of six years. “Gambled It All” Detective Chief Inspector R. Huntley said the police had no information where the money had gone apart from statements that Prince had gambled it all away. Chief Inspector Huntley said Prince joined Harrods as a messenger in 1937, and, apart from war service, had

been there ever since. He was married with six children and lived at Fulham, London. A bookmaker friend, Albert Gordon, called by the defence, described Prince as “very charitable and a sort of Robin Hood.” Gordon said he had known Prince for 38 years. He had always been a gambler and from about 1958 his betting had become excessive. Paid To Have Bets

“He started to employ people, paying some of them substantial money like £2O or £3O a night to put bets on for him at different race courses. “He was very charitable and would contribute to sev-

eral charities so heavily that I have told him not to give so much.” Forged Signatures Mr Graham Swanwick, Q.C., for the prosecution, told the Court Prince obtained the money from Harrod’s by forging the signature of higher officials of Harrod’s on invoices for contract work which was, in fact, never carried out. Prince’s brother-in-law, Harry Peel, aged 45, a master builder and undertaker, of Dewbury, Yorkshire, was found not guilty on the 20 charges to which Prince had pleaded guilty, and with Prince, not guilty of conspiracy. Peel was discharged.