DARING EXPLOITS

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 October 1929, Page 5

DARING EXPLOITS

DISGUISE THAT FAILED. “You must be one of the most brazen rogues that I have come across.” These words were addressed by Sheriff Orr in Edinburgh to a young man, Charles Barron Lamond, who was sent to prison for twelve months, following a most remarkable series of daring escapades, during which he duped dozens of people in different parts of Scotland. Lamond is only 26 years of age, but, thus early in life, he has succeeded in securing for himself a prominent place in the “Rogues’ Gallery.” Opposite his name and photograph is a string of convictions in England and Scotland. He is a native of Blackpool, but was brought, when a child, to Glasgow. He is a motor driver by trade, and is married. His wife, however, does not live with him, preferring to live apart from a man who, it is patent, is bent on a life of crime. She resides in Grail, Fifeshire, while her husband tours the country thieving and defrauding. Standing over six feet in height, Lamond is of conspicuous appearance. When only sixteen years of age he joined the army, and was posted with the artillery. Shortly afterwards, however, he was discharged when his true age was discovered. It was following his discharge from the Army that he deserted the straight and narrow path, and decided to live by his wits, with the result that he has found himself in the dock at Rhyl, Preston, Airdrie, Leeds, Kilmarnock, Perth, and Edinburgh. INGENIOUS TRICK. His present series of escapades started last November, just a few days after he came out of prison, where he had served a sentence of six months imposed on him at Perth, and it ended when he was arrested in Edinburgh, i where he tried to avoid capture by adopting a clever but vain disguise. At this time the police of numerous towns held warrants for his arrest. Lamond was wanted in Glasgow, ' Stirlingshire, Midlothian, Forfarshire, < Renfew, Kinross, and Dumfermline. The Edinburgh police got to hear that Lamond was in the capital, and . there began a comb-out of all the places where the man was likely to conceal himself. Latterly he was ' traced to a lodging house in the city, where he was posing as an elderly cripple. He Was wearing coloured spectacles,- and walked with the aid of a stick, one of his legs being ostensibly lame, and his back bent as with , age. i

When taken into custody he did not deny his identity—he could not very well, seeing that his photograph was in the possession of every police force in the country—and he was locked up, with twenty-five charges preferred against him. Inquiries by a “Weekly Record” special commissioner reveal the fact that Lamond was released from prison last November. Within three days of his release he was calling at houses in different districts, hawking orders for Christmas cards. He had with him a book of attractive samples, and when he was successful in getting an order he asked for a deposit. That was the last that was seen of him —when he secured the deposit. He called at a garage in Patrick and expressed the desire to buy a car. He chose one and took it from the garage for a trial spin. Nothing more was seen of Lamond, but the car was found abandoned in the East of Scotland about a fortnight later. This craze for having a motor did not cease ■with the abandoning of the car, for not long afterwards Lamond called at a garage in the Shawlands district of Glasgow. He wanted to hire a car for three days, he said. One was hired to him, and Lamond made for the east coast again. He arrived in Musselburgh without the price of a meal, but that was no handicap to Charles Barron Lamond. He stopped at a garage, put in the car, and then asked to see the manager. “Listen, old man,” he remarked in his plausible manner. “I’m tempdrarily embarrassed financially. I wonder if you could lend me a fiver?” And pointed to the car as security. The car was worth many “fivers,” and the manager of the place obliged, being told that he would be repaid the following day. He never saw Lamond again, and afterwards realised that he had lost the five pounds, for the car was found to be stolen property. The crook in the meantime found that the want of a car hampered his style somewhat. He called, therefore, at another garage in Edinburgh, and interviewing the proprietor, said that Jie had been sent by a clergyman in Newington to hire a car to take an aged man to Stirling. His appearance and plausibility did not raise the ,slightest suspicion, and Lamond was given a saloon car, which he promptly used to resume his tour of fraud. Coming back to Edinburgh he abandoned the car in a quiet lane in the Corstorphine district, where it was ultimately found. There are some crooks for whom the police have a good word', Lamond is not one of them. Indeed, it would appear from the ■story of his frauds that he specialises in robbing poor people, men and women who can ill afford the loss, which he causes them.