BOGUS FORTUNE

Evening Star, Issue 19550, 7 May 1927, Page 24

BOGUS FORTUNE

GIRL LURED TO LOUDON A story of a young married woman, ihc daughter of a colonel of the Guards, dicing lured to London from Ostend by a swindler, who claimed to have come into a fortune of £65,000, was told n't Marlborough street, when Mrs Violet Ella Gertrude Parsons (thirty-six) was charged with failing to observe the condition of a probation officer that she was to live in Ostend with her mother. | It was stated that she was charged with i obtaining money from a 'West, End firm by . means of a worthless cheque. Tho police had reason to believe that she had been acting under tho influence of a drunken scoundrel whom sue mot in Ostend, and she had committed other cheque frauds and thefts while ho had remained in bed. sho was placed on probation on condition that she wont to live with her mother in Ostend. The court missionary saw her leave London, but. eight days laicr Mrs Parsons was back in London with the same man. TO CLAIM THE FORTUNE. rietoctivo Griffey said that a few days after Mrs Parsons was sent to Ostend an advertisement appeared in a newspaper stating that tho man she was mixed up with had come into a fortune of £65,006. Tho same day a letter was written to Mrs Parsons, at the man’s dictation, by the proprietress of the hotel where Mrs Parsons was arrested, telling her that if she came to London and accompanied tho man to Ireland ho would be able to claim tho fortune. Mrs Parsons came to London, but nothing more was heard of the fortune, and inquiries by tho police led them to believe that tho man inserted the advertisement in the newspaper himself. Within a week of her arrival in London she and tho man obtained credit at a West End restaurant, Ihe man representing that his pension was due in a few days, which was a lie. The woman obtained a cboqno from a friend for the ostensible purpose of returning to Ostend. “ I have reason to believe,” added tho- detective, “that they were about to resume their former mode of living.’’ i A CATSPAW. Mr Canceller (the magistrate): That is swindling (ho public, he making use of her as the eatspaw. Mr Bcyfus, defending, said there was no doubt that Mrs Parsons returned to Loudon under the illusory promise of Sue man that there was a fortune of £65,00d awaiting him. Tho adbertisoment was headed: ’Missing £6s,ooo’Heir; Fortune waiting for young ox-soldier.’ Then . followed tho man’s name and a statement that under the will of a wealthy 166-yeax-old woman rancher and cattle owner at Tennessee bo had come into a iortime of £65,000. On arriving in Loudon Mrs Parsons found that it was simply a snare to get her back to England, and she could not go back, as she had ua money. Mr Canccllor said Sirs Parsons knew that tho reason for sending her to Ostend was to part her from tho adventurer and swindler with whom she had been acting. Probation orders could not be deliberately broken, and she must go to prison for three months.