A MASTER CRIMINAL

Evening Star, Issue 22892, 25 February 1938, Page 11

A MASTER CRIMINAL

STEALS BULLION CONSIGNMENT NO TRACE OF THE RAID • Scotland Yard is pitting its trains against a master criminal, who, some time during the 3,000 miles journey or a bullion consignment, conjured from its sealed and rigorously guarded box £1,400 worth of gold—leaving no trace that the raid had taken place. From Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, the box travelled to London. It arrived with. no sign that it had been tampered with; it was exactly the same in weight. But officials who opened it found inside a collection of hammer-heads and French nails. Now detectives from London and Liverpool are forging a chain of inquiries along every stage of the bullion s journey. Everyone who has had the slightest contact with the gold consignment is being closely questioned. There is one clue. The hammerheads are of a particular type, anq finger-prints have been found on them. OFFICIAL SEAL. Liverpool police believe that the substitution was done at Freetown, in Sierra Leone. The missing gold was part of a large consignment being transported to the United African Company Ltd. at Unilever House, E.C. There were about 20 boxes, all of wood, heavily bound with iron and officially sealed. The bos from which the gold is missing was transhipped on December 14 by the United African steamer Gambian from Freetown to Bromhorough, Cheshire. During the voyage the boxes were kept in the strongroom of the vessel and carefully guarded. The Gambian arrived at Bromborough on December 29, and the same day the gold was taken to the premises of Messrs Lever Bros. UISDER ESCORT. Soon after, three railway officials escorted the boxes to Lime street station, Liverpool, where they were checked and put on the train to London. Normally, bullion passing through Liverpool is escorted by armed police, but on this occasion the police were not informed. At Euston the gold was put under official care, and the next day delivered under escort to Unilever house. So expertly had the box been resealed— -deceiving even officials in charge of the consignment—that it is thought the substitution must _ have been done by someone with an intimate knowledge of the transhipping of gold.