PLAUSIBLE ROGUE

Evening Star, Issue 21518, 16 September 1933, Page 9

PLAUSIBLE ROGUE

WOMAN’S £3,000 FRAUDS MOTHER OF FIVE CHILDREN Described by a detective as a plausible and persistent rogue, a smartlydressed, middle-aged woman was carried from tile dock at Leeds Assizes a lew weeks ago in a state ot collapse to undergo a sentence of three years’ penal servitude for a series of frauds whereby, in three years, she had netted over £3.000. Working cntirolv alone, the woman, Alice Walker, aged forty-throe, described as a waitress, who had recently been living in London, was stated to have found her victims in two big cities—Birmingham and Leeds. Police evidence was given that, when sbe took to gambling, both on dogs and horses, she would spend as much as £IOO a day on betting. in addition to three charges in the indictment—obtaining, by false pretences, £SO from Freda Jackson, of Leeds; £250 from John Phillips, of Birmingham, and £270 from Ivy Esses, also of Birmingham—accused asked for sixteen other cases to be taken into consideration. Prosecuting counsel _ said that the sum involved in these sixteen eases was £1,989. and that the total proceeds of exceedingly ingenious and persistent frauds was in the neighbourhood of £3,000. METHODS OF TEE ACCUSED. Walker’s methods, counsel said, were very similar in every instance, being either to advertise in newspapers tor ■v sleeping partner for a drapery and hardware business in Birmingham, or > represent herself as being a _ registered moneylender • and requiring money for that business. In 'reply to one of accused’s advertisements' Mr Phillips, a Birmingham jeweller, called on Walker at her address in Birmingham, and she explained to him that she wanted a partner with £IOO to take the place of one who had left her to get married. She represented that the furniture and the house belonged to her, and Mr 1 hillips invested altogether £250 in three sums. Later, when lie asked for the return of his money. Walker made various excuses for not paying. Detective-inspector Craig read out a list of the sixteen other cases which iho woman wished the judgo_ to take into consideration. From tin's it appeared that nearly all these frauds were committed in Birmingham ni 1931. , , The inspector alleged that when (raced to London and arrested Walker made a voluntary statement m which she declared that at. one lime the drapery business which she bad m Birmingham was doing well, and that she ‘•took some people” to join her ns partners. “ Later on,” the woman was alleced to have continued. ‘ I found that I was getting short of money and I resorted to gambling on dogs' and horse racing, and I lost about £790 belonging to me and the persons who invested their money with 1 n Detective-inspector Craig, continuing, ••'id that the woman, a native of Birmingham, was the mother of five children, whose ages ranged from seven years to twenty-two, and she had been '‘•wire married. Her first husband was killed in the war, and after working m hotels at Manchester. Liverpool, Loudon. ami Birmingham, she married again. BETTING ON HORSES AND DOGS. Accused first came under the notice of the police at Manchester, when she received a four months’ sentence on several charges of false pretences. At Salford in 1.920 she was sentenced _ to twelve months for frauds amounting to £854. of a similar type to those with which she was now charged. On one occasion she got a bookmaker to cash her a cheque for £IOO, and it was dishonoured hv the bank. t , It was estimated, continued the in-

spector, that the total sum accused Ikkl received from the offences to winch she had now pleaded guilty was £2,793 in cash and £426 in goods. Nearly all this money had been squandered in betting on horses and dogs, and it was stated that in horseracing she had lost as much as £IOO in a day. Walker; That is a lie. . , Defending counsel 'stated that one

of the causes of Walker's downfall wa« launching into business with insufficient capital. The judge, in passing sentence, told Walker that for a long period she .had been carrying on a “ persistent system of swindling.' 1 It was a serious case, and lie would not bo doing his duty to the public if he gave her anything less than penal servitude.