PASSPORT MYSTERY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 27 August 1924, Page 9

PASSPORT MYSTERY.

YOUNG WOMAN’S AUDACIOUS SCHEME.

DETECTIVES’ DISCOVERY

After an investigation extending over three months Commonwealth detectives have succeeded in exposing an audacious attempt by a Melbourne girl, to impose oil the passport* authorities (says the Melbourne Age of .Tilly 30). Inquiries were commenced after an official attached to tlie French Consul’s office acquainted the Criminal Investigation Branch of his suspicions regarding the applications made by a young woman for a passport entitling her to sail for France. The matter was placed in the hands of two Commonwealth detectives, who succeeded in working out a clue which ultimately had successful results.

Some few months ago a young woman Walked into the French Consul’s office and filled in the necessary papers for a passport to France. Although she had the nomenclature and was somewhat foreign in appearance, the suspicions of the clerk were aroused. After a conversation with the applicant lie was satisfied that the girl was playing a part, and that the obtaining of a passport figured in a scheme which she intended to carry out

An amazing- story was disclosed following the detectives’ inquiries. They learned that the girl had represented herself to a well-known business man in the city as of French extraction, and heiress to a iairly large estate in France. The girl played the part so perfectly, and had such a striking personality, and the man became infatuated with ber. The young woman expressed a desire to visit France in order to establish her identity and claim the family fortune. She said that some slight difficulty might be experienced in this regard, as she had been taken away from her parents when she was a child, but that the papers she had in her possession would remove all doubts as to her legitimate right to the yioney. It was agreed that she should leave Australia by the next boat. The girl, according to the detectives, was born in England, and came to Australia when she was a few years old. It is stated that she assumed the role of the Frenchwoman almost to perfection, and that had it not been for the suspicions of the officials in the ‘Consul’s office there would have been nothing to prevent her from carrying out her carefullyprepared plans. The story of the French estate, the police officers explained, had to bo substituted by the trip to France. After returning to Australia the girl, made doubly attractive by reason of her romantic life, was to have married the man and settled down in some quiet suburban home. Although the girl was subjected to a severe cross-examination bj* tbe detectives, she held to her story to the last. Certain proofs were then forthcoming, and she realised that the game was up. For obvious,reasons no prosecution followed, although the girl had involved herself in a serious breach of the Commonwealth laws bv attempting to obtain a passport by fraud.