THE CONFIDENCE GAME NEW ZEALANDER'S RUSE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 91, 14 October 1931, Page 10

THE CONFIDENCE GAME

NEW ZEALANDER'S RUSE

EFFORT TO CATCH CLEVER GANG

United Press Association—By Electric Tele-

graph—Copyright.

LONDON, 12th October,

At least one visitor to London whom confidence men failed to exploit is Mr. Cuthbert Cowan, a New Zealand grazier, who visited Australia House. There he met a well-dressed stranger, who claimed that he was a New Zealander, and said that he had met Mr. Cowan previously at the Hotel Australia, Sydney.

The stranger invited Mr. Cowan to dine at the Carlton Hotel, where, after an expensive repast, a second affluent "New Zealander" invited them to a theatre party, where a "Canadian millionaire" arrived and talked freely of easy money in gilt-edged stocks. Mr. Cowan's acquaintances promised to let him in on a £25,00p deal, giving a prompt return of £100,000. Mr. Cowan, however, consulted Scotland Yard, where he learned that he had been hobnobbing with one of the cleverest of the Anglo-Continental gangs. Detectives planned that Mr. Cowau should keep his appointment at a hotel where they would be hiding in a wardrobe, and would catch the gangsters redhanded, but the crooks were warned by espionage, and left a message for Mr. Cowan saying that "the deal was off."