“PRINCE OF SWINDLERS”

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 August 1932, Page 2

“PRINCE OF SWINDLERS”

AN INFIRMITY EXPLOITED Described as “a prince of swindlers,” Ernest Page, 51, coachbuilder, was sentenced at the Old Bailey recently to three years’ penal servitude. He pleaded guilty to attempting to obtain by false pretences £127 10/- from one insurance company and £6 8/6 from another. Mr. Tristram Beresford, prosecuting, said that about ten years ago Page discovered that he had a congenital infirmity similar to a broken collar bone, and up to 1928 lie had made 20 claims on 17 insurance companies. Nineteen of them were paid, Page getting £2,2GS. For these offences he was sentenced to 12 months in the second division. This year “once again the collar bone was produced,” and he nearly obtained £127 10/- from an insurance company. Just before the money was to be paid he was recognised. Detective Inspector Powell said that Page had practically obtained his living by these frauds from 1920 to 1928. “I understand,” added witness, “that doctors were deceived, and they certified that the collar bone had been fractured.”