DOLE FRAUDS

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 August 1932, Page 5

DOLE FRAUDS

RECIPIENTS’ INGENUITY.

SYDNEY, August 1.

Detectives have been astonished by the ingenuity of many dole recipients, who have managed to draw the dole in both metropolitan and country centres by using trains without paying fares. While many of these men are satisfied to draw twice the amount they are entitled to, others have engaged in thieving from trains to add to their income.

The police detailed the movements of several men who were receiving the dole. As soon as they were paid in the city they moved to the western suburbs, where they were able to join trains to Lithgow and other, centres more than 100 miles from Sydney. Some of the men joined the trains while they were stationary at platforms and hid themselves in goods trucks, where they were safe from observation by the guard and enginedriver. Others waited at cuttings, where the high grades forced the trains to proceed slowly. They jumped on the trucks and hid themselves, while the officials on the train were unaware of their presence; The majority of these men, who totalled several hundred, drew the dole at Sydney, and then at a country centre. Then they returned to the city and repeated the process.

The police were mainly concerned with the men who added to their income by robbing trains. They are certain that more than 100 men rob trains while they are travelling to and from the country to draw twice the amount of unemployment relief to which they are entitled. The police have been worried by the persistence of some men whom they have arrested. One man was sentenced to several weeks’ imprisonment for stealing whisky. As soon as he was released he was arrested again for stealing goods 1 on his return trip.

Both the police and railway detectives have been kept busy by the numerous thefts.