INGENIOUS FRAUD

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 51, 1 March 1930, Page 20

INGENIOUS FRAUD

Ladies'" Cheque

Scotland Yard detectives have been informed of an ingenious fraud, which has been carried out in Torquay and other towns on the- South Coast by two girls who: disguise themselves as elderly ladies. In every case the method has been the same. A local firm receives" a letter purporting to bo written by Mrs. Blank, who states she is residing at a first-class hotel. She asks for certain frocks to be sent to her at the hotel on Approval. On the morning the letter is received, states the "Daily Telegraph," Mrs. Blank telephones to the firm and tells them that she will call- herself at the shop and therefore they need not trouble to send the frocks. Sometimo later an apparently elderly lady, with dark horn-rimmed glasses and wearing' rather old-fashioned clothDs, walks into the- shop with a slow and dignified gait. She says she is Mrs. Blank. She inspects various frocks, and at length chooses ono valued at £G, aiid asks for it to be sent to the hotel. Then, she produces £3 in notes and.a cheque which she says is for £5 ss.' The assistant looks at the cheque and sees that it is made- out for SlO 10s. 'When this fact is pointed out to Mrs. Blank she- expresses pleasurable surprise. "I thought,"1 she explains, "my husband had made it out for five guineas." Unsuspecting, the assistant returns, the £3 in notes:to the customer and hands her &i 10s cash against the £10 ' 10s cheque. ■ ..', ' ," Both parties arc satisfied until the firm finds out when they send 'the frock to the hotel, that Mrs. Blank does not live, there, and. that her.cheque is returned marked "No account."

Tho two women who arc worluug this trick are both described as being about 60 years of age, but the police, know they are much younger. One of them took off a glove, and an observant assistant noticed that tho hand was the carefully manicured hand of n. young ..wmnan.- ' . -.■.