CHEQUES UNCOVER CRIMINAL

Evening Star, Issue 20634, 6 November 1930, Page 10

CHEQUES UNCOVER CRIMINAL

— JEWEL BURGLAR’S IMPUDENT OFFER [Pek United Pkess Association.] AUCKLAND, November C. A remarkable story of a man who burgled a Remuera, house, stole jewellery, and then endeavoured to induce the owner to pay him £SO to return it, was told in tho Police Court when Clifford Nelson Double, aged twenty-eight, was charged with breaking and entering and the theft of jewellery worth £4O; also with “ corrupt! v bargaining for a reward in consideration of helping in the recovery of jewellery obtained by theft.’ 1 Evidence wjis given by jVlrs Stupley that she received a letter card whose writer offered the return of tho jewellery if she made it worth his while. She was to reply through the personal column of the newspaper. After consulting the police she replied, and subsequently received several more letters, in one of which tho wi-tcr offered to send the name and address of the thief, and enough evidence to convict him of this and other crimes. He also told Ivor the thief was a “super crook,” who was preparing to leave the dominion with her property. Her house was still under observation, and to savo herself trouble she should pay £SO. She offered £25,' but heard no more. , Double pleaded guilty, and was committed for sentence. Ho also pleaded guilty, with a young woman named Kathleen Mariay, to obtaining £l4 by two valueless cheques. The police said lie wrote out the cheques and got Mariay to cash them. Ho was an habitual criminal. He was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, and Mariay was remanded for report, the Magistrate saying that she had been under Double’s domination. , , It is understood that the police, being handed tho valueless cheques, discovered that the handwriting was the same ns that on the anonymous lettercards received by Mrs Staplcy.