MYTHICAL RICHES

Grey River Argus, 8 September 1938, Page 11

MYTHICAL RICHES

Young Man’s Frauds

STORY OF £1,000,000 GIFT. PRISON FOR FALSE. PRETENCES. The story of a mythical £1,000,009 was- related at the Central Criminal Court, London, when Kenneth Walter Dodd, aged 26, a fishmonger’s assistant; of Brent Way, Benchley, was sentenced to fifteen months’ imprisonment. He pleaded “guilty” to stealing, as bailee, a refrigerator arid two wireless sets. 1 He also pleaded “guilty” to Charges of obtaining, by false pretences and with intent to defraud, £ll6 from Mrs. Carol Anne Barrington, a widowed housekeeper, of Argyle road, Finchley; £5O from Mrs. Mary Barker, of Hutton Grove, Finchley; and £383 from Miss Gertrude Amelia Tillyer, of Woodbury Gardens, Finchley. He asked that 10 further charges of a similar nature be taken into consideration. Mr. Gerald Howard, for the prosecution, said that in September Dodd appeared- to have spread about a story that an AriieriGan woman had given him £1,000,000 for services he. had rendered her. He said that he was not allowed to disclose her name.

MONEY FOR STAMP DUTIES. It was a story which received a considerable amount of publicity, Dodd called upon certain of his customers, among them being Mrs. Barrington. He told her he was going to , give her a large sum of money, and persuaded her to give him some money to pay for stamp duties. He told similar stories in the other cases. Mr. Johp Maude, defending, said that until the story about the fortune was spread, Dodd was an ordinary young man with a wife and three children. Dodd had said that someone did ring him up and say that he had inherited £l*ooo,ooo. He became a most important person in his own mind, and people flocked round him. Everyone in. the district seemed• to believe that Dodd really was going to have £1,000,000, and it was irresistible for him to go on. .

MOTHER BELIEVED IT. Mrs. Sarah Dodd told the Recorder (Mr. Gerald Dodson), that her son was well behaved and truthful until the story started, and he worked hard in the shop. She first heard about the fortune when someone telephoned—her son was at home at the time —and said that he was heir to the money. Mr. John Maude: Did you come to believe it? “Yes, I did.” The Recorder said to. Dodd: “You seem to have become a victim of your own hallucinations, and but for the fact that. you are a ’young man and have had. a good character hitherto and are already seriously punished by your loss, of .reputation, the sentence on you would necessarily be a heavy one.. Whatever, may have been the origin of this fraud, however, it may have been, amplified by suggestions to which you willingly listened, the fact remains, that you worked it very successfully on all and various people upon whose cupidity you played.”