SEAMEN DEFRAUDED

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 August 1935, Page 9

SEAMEN DEFRAUDED

SECRETARY IMPERSONATED. SYDNEY, July 27. The impersonation of a union secretary by a confidence man and an assistant recently resulted in two members of the Australian Seamens Union losing £lO. It was pointed out last night that confidence men had adopted many ruses, but it was the first time that one had successfully represented himself as a unjon secretary and defrauded an unsuspecting member ot a union. The Federal Secretary of the Australian Seamen’s Union (Mr J. son) stated yesterday that he had toiwarded to the police particulars oi a mean trick played on a member of ins union. , >. . He said that two members had given him sworn declarations that they had been defrauded by a confidence man, who had claimed to be Mr Johnson, Federal Secretary of the union. According to the declarations, a member of the union met a man who said he was the Federal Secretary of the Seamen’s Union. The confidence man promised the seaman that if he and his mate paid him £5 each he would obtain a position for him and two others on an oversea vessel. Asking tlie seaman to say nothing to any official, the confidence man took the seaman to the outer office of the Sydney branch of the Seamen’s Union in Day Street, where out of work members generally foregather. Details of the matter were discussed and arrangements made for tiie seaman to meet the captain of the ship the following morning. On arrival at the ship, the conlkieuce man and the unsuspecting seaman was met by a man, who posed as the captain, and promised to place the seaman and two friends in work when the vessel returned from Melbourne. The £lO was paid over, and the seaman did not become suspicious until some days later, when he discovered from a shipping office that the vessel would not return to Sydney. It was not, however, until the seaman had rushed up to the Federal office of the union in Grace House and had seen Mr Johnson that he discovered he and his mate had lost £lO through the ruse of a confidence trickster and his associate.

Mr Johnson has issued a warning to seamen.