STOLEN MAIL-BAGS

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 17, 20 July 1934, Page 7

STOLEN MAIL-BAGS

MANiIN A HAMPER

■STORY AT THE TRIAL

GTOUR MEN SENTENCED

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, Juno 8. After throo days 3 hearing sit the Oxford Assizes the trial was concluded bofore Mr. Justice MacKiunon of four men alleged, to bo concerned in the theft of five mail-bags from tho luggage van of a train from Paddingtoh to Fishguard on May^lO. .Their names and sentences were:— Edwin John Beaufortc, 37,' commission ageut—three years' penal servitude. v Low Lewis, 37, photographer—four years' penal' servitude. . Fred Perry, 26, 'photographer—two years' imprisonment. John William King, 24, motor driver (found guilty of receiving, but not guilty of theft) —bound over. The hamper and truck referred to in the case wore put in the luggage van of the 7.55 p.m. express with the mailbags at Paddington, and taken off at Beading. Shortly afterwards mail-bags and letters were found in a wrecked motor-car which Beaufortc admitted ■ ivas his. Shortly before the train lefffor South I AVales, a motor-van appeared alongside the platform, and a man 'identified as Lewis called a porter to assist him and another man in moving a hamper and a trunk. The'hamper, said counsel, was ■\ cry heavy, and the prosecution bcliiived it contained a man. It Could be opened from .the. inside. .Tho two men put the hamper and trunk into the van into which the mail-bags had been placed, and jumped into tho train just a? it was moving off. Later pillows and a rug were found inside, the hamper as though someone had made himself comfortable in.it. On tho lid of tho hamper was tied a box labelled "Fragile." It was afterwards found to contain a pillow, and the suggestion was that it was placed on the hamper to prevent anything else being.put on top. At 8.35 p.m. at Beading two men unloaded the hamper and with the trunk placed it into a motor-lorry driven by King. The guard of' the train would say that no one went near the van during the journey from Paddington to Beading. CAB IN COLLISION. "If you believe the evidence,"• said Mr. Morrison, "you will believe that during the journey the man in the hamper, alone in the van, opened it from inside, got ont, transferred tho mailbags to the trunk, and got back into the hamper. "The mail-bags were found later that night in a car which had been in a collision, a car which Beauforte admitted was his and which Lewis admitted he had been driving at the time of the collision. There seems little doubt that at the time of the collision Beauforte, Porry, and Lewis were driving towards London at a fast speed, with the stolen mail-bags in the oar." The hamper and trunk were later found in King's lorry. Mr. Morrison said that a passing cyclist saw Perry and Lewis after the collision-shouting aftor a third man, who was running away. Beauforte was arrested that night in an inn near by. He was injured, but denied any knowledge of the "mail-bags, saying he had ijnst picked up his friends at Reading. In Beauforte's possession was found a lead seal from a mail-bag. Also in the car was found an attache case containing papers stamped with the nam^s,,of Perry and Lewis. Those two Tvere de-tained-the same night at Maidenhead Station, - and explained • injuries- -which they had by saying that they had boen in a fight in a publiehouso. Percy's left arm was later found to be broken. STATEMENTS BY MAN, KING. King, continued Mr. Morrison,"Tnado two statements to the police.-In-the second of these he said he met ;Perry, Lewis, and Beauforte in April, and Boauforte asked him to collect a' basket and trunk at Beading with a' Jorry. He did so, anff'took them to Susses Mews, London: ,' On May 10 ho was asked to do tho job again. On this occasion' he was tsapped outside Beading by twoI' men in a car. They got into his lorry,' and he saw Beauforte get out of the basket. The statement continued: "I was very siurprised. I saw them take what looked like two canvas bags out of the trunk and put them in the car." Mr. Justice MacKinnon, summing-up, said there could be no doubt that someone travelled in the hamper and put the mail bags in tho trunk. Tho whole story was a. dramatic one, concerning as it did the crash of a car within half an hour of the stolen bags being taken out of the train at Beading. "Someone engineered this ingenious rifling of the mail bags," addod the Judge. "These men say they came upon thorn by accident. You may think that explanation so wild that if it were told to the Marines not one member of, that proverbially credulous regiment would believe it." MAIL-BAG THIEF FOR YEARS. The jury found Beauforte, Lewis, and ' Perry guilty of stealing tho bags, and King not guilty of stealing but guilty of receiving them knowing them to have been stolen. Detective-Sergeant Arseott said that Beaufortc's real name was Flinn. He was married, and had threo children, but was living apart from his wife. He had no previous convictions, and had a good character in the Navy during the war. Complaints had been mado to the police •. about him at Southcnd and in .London. Lewis, whose real name was Andrew Began, 'had two previous convictions for shopbreaking, and had servod a term of penal servitude. Ho was separated from his 'wife. It was believed he had been engaged in mail-bag robberies f&r a.number of years. Perry and King had no preivous convictions. A previous employer of King gave him an excellent character and was willing to take him back. The probable reason for his connection with the case was his anxiety to repay moaay he had borrowed. THE PREVIOUS OCCASION.' Having passed sentences, tho Judge asked Mr. Morrison (prosecuting) what had happened when, .as revealed in the evidence, the basket and trunk were sent la Heading on a previous occasion. Mr. Morrison said the theory was that on that occasion other luggage was pnt on top of the hamper and the man 'wisls couH not get out. •The prisoner King declared in a statement to the police that Beauforto fras the man in the hamper. it was. stated during the case that Beauforte was a bookmaker in the TVest End in a large way of business. When giving evidence ho claimed that at this timo of year his turnover was from £1000 to £,1500 a day; One day lie was allowed bail, his counsel saying: "Thii is Derby week, and hundreds and thousands of pounds have been laid in toets in his office. , If ho can got to his office tonight he can save himself a lot of money by laying-off the bets with other bookmakers." A teeond application for bail to deal further with his Derby bets was refused, and on the afternoon of the Derby he .was sentenced.