MOCK AUCTIONS

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 May 1929, Page 10

MOCK AUCTIONS

BRITISH LEGISLATION. Lord Gorell is—unknown to most of his peers—an amateur crime investigator. For some time,.as he confessed to the House of Lords (says a report in the London ‘Daily Chronicle”), he has been watching bogus auctions in the by-streets of the towns and in seaside resorts. He moved the second reading of a Bill to prohibit mock auc tions, “at which worthless goods arc sold, to the public by means of intentional misrepresentations as to their natu re.”

Lord Gorell described how “as a student of crime and the English language” he had picked up some of the queerest examples of the language employed in the business. He noted, for instance, that the confederates of the auctioneer, or “hammerer,” who mingle with the crowd, and try to stimulate interest in the exhibits, are called “gees” and “ricks.” To “sling a gee” is to take part in a swindle on a spectator. If a victim makes trouble the next movo is known as “smitzing the

bogey to hinten” and to “noise the edge”;; otherwise to manoeuvre the objector round to the back of the place so that he should not spoil the remainder of the auction.

The operation of robbing a victim of money is known by the weird term of “gazooipphing a sarker.” The aim of tho auctioneer, as soon as the “ricks and “gees” spot a man with money or a “sarker.” is to “gazoomph” him, and to get hold of all the victim has. In money phrases, “deuce phunt’” means £2, and “Uncle Ben” £lO.

The “hammerer,” in fact, practises a sort of capital levy on his victims, but is not satisfied wth a partial levy if ho can get the. lot. This “hammerer” is expected to get at least “half bunce” on every article lie sells. The victims are drawn from all kinds of people. No purchaser ever gets a bargain, because the “hammerer” must, show a profit, and the victim generally pays three or four times the value of the article knocked down to him. Another kind of fraud is the “rigged” sale; generally in a country house, hired for the purpose, and furnished throughout. The Bill was read a second time, and sent to a Select Committee.