WOMEN DECEIVED

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 November 1933, Page 5

WOMEN DECEIVED

“PROPERTY IN NEW ZEALAND.”

LONDON, September 25. A remarkable story of a man’s rela-

.onship with two women was told at

West London Police Cou.rt yesterday, when James Hood, 30, motor driver, Argyll Road, Ealing, was remanded charged with obtaining money from them by false pretences. The name of one of the women was not disclosed.

Mr H. Pierron, prosecuting, said that in March last Hood met a Miss Addington, a young probationary nurse, and they went out together. Eventually Miss Addington introduced him to her parents as her fiance. Hood said that he was employed’ by a tyre company and told the girl’s mother that his uncle, who, he said, was a farmer in a large way in New Zealand, had recently died, leaving him all his property, including a large poultry farm and a furnished house. A condition, however, in the will was that he must be married by his thirtieth birthday, which would be on August 1, otherwise the property would pas s to someone else. He produced what purported' to be a certified copy of the will. Later he showed Miss Addington a

letter supposed to be from one of the executors, asking him to get married and go over to New Zealand to take possession of the property. He said he had already paid £6O on the account of the passage of himself and his future wife. Arrangements were made for the marriage to take place on June 18, but about ten days before, Hood told Mrs Addington that his wallet, containing £35, practically all the money he had, had been stolen, and she lent him £l5, which, he said', would be required to complete the purchase of the passage tickets. On June 18 he and Miss Addington were married at St. Matthew’s Church, West Kensington, and afterwards stayed together at the

parents’ house. On July 7 they left to go to the shipping offices to fix everything for the voyage, but on the way he dodged her and she never saw him again. Hood sent a telegram to.the mother saying he would explain everything later. He afterwards wrote endeavouring to justify his conduct by saying that he was really in love with another daughter of hers. Mrs Addington made inquiries, and found that' all his statements were lies.. The second charge concerned a woman whose name and address Mr Pierron asked to be suppressed in the interests of justice. It appeared, he said, that this woman had inserted an advertisement in a paper seeking the acquaintance of “a man friend who must, be refined, ambitious, and reliable, and aged 35 to 45 years.’ Hood answered' it on June 23, five days after his marriage to Miss Addington, in the name of Mitchell. He had an interview and eventually it was arranged they should get married. He told her he was employed by a tyre company in America and

had come-to England to see his sister, who was dying. . . Later he said he was leaving this company and had a position with the Dunlop Company at Wolverhampton, at a salary of £450 a year with commission and' car allowance. He also said he owed the American company £SO advanced him when he came over, and wanted £4O towards that debt. The woman lent him that sum. She. went with him to a registrar’s office, where he gave the necessary notice for their marriage on August 5, but on July 27 he disappeared. In a letter later he said that he had come to the conclusion that “things were impossible.”