AUDACIOUS FRAUD.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 30 December 1927, Page 8

AUDACIOUS FRAUD.

HOUSEHOLD GOODS DISAPPEAR.

PROPERTY VALUED AT £4OOO,

MELBOURNE, Dec. 5.

The discovery of some old: letters in a heap of rubbish in an empty house in Cromwell Road, South Yarra, recently provided Plain-clothes Constables F % Lacey and Higgins, of Prahran, with an important clue with, reference to the disappearance of property valued at £4OOO from suburban storage premises. After working diligently for many weeks, Lacey and Higgins were rewarded with success on Saturday morning, when, after “shadowing” a woman in the city for several hours, they arrested a man at the corner of Bourke and Queen streets. Using the telephone _ extensively m carrying out his audacious scheme, a man is alleged to have impersonated various people and tricked the owners of storage houses in a very clever manner. Ho succeeded on many occasions in getting large and valuable quantities of furniture removed from storage and carted to empty suburban houses. Ho would then call at the deserted houses late at night, and after ransacking the baggage of the best of the property he would repack the boxes and have them removed to city and suburban auction rooms early the following day. The man was careful to keep well in the background, and throughout his campaign of alleged theft he was never even seen. His plans were always laid over the telephone, and when the cheques were ready at the auction rooms he induced the woman to coilooj Letters, which the man had discarded when he was rummaging through the property of one of the victims, proved his undoing. Plain-clothes Constables Lacey and Higgins discovered an: address on one of the letters. Following up the clue they went to a house in Munroe'Street, Malvern, then to Williams Road, Prahran, and finally located the owner of the property at a guest house in St. Hilda Road. The man was preparing to leave on an extended tour of the world with his wife and family, and the two plain-clothes constables interviewed them just in time. Had the owner left the country the two constables state that they would have had much difficulty in tracing the wanted man. . , , The first complaint investigated bv Lacey and Higgins was received on November 23. It appears that Mn and Mrs Johnson, a wealthy couple, were contemplating a world tour, and had vacated their city residence. They had had the furniture Temoved to the storage rooms of King and Wilson, Mercer Road, Malvern. On December 1 a man is stated to have telephoned the store and represented himself as Mr Johnson. He made a request for his household effects to be sent to a house in Surrey Street, South Yarra, that* afternoon. One of the members of the firm went to the addressed named with the goods, and received written instructions' to convey the fufniture to another house in Cromwell Road, South Yana. When the driver of the van reached this address he found a note pinned on the door. The writer, who signed himself “Mr Johnson,” said he had_ to attend to some business in the city, and regretted that he was unable to wait and take charge of the furniture. Ho instructed the furniture storage man to leave the property at the house. Accordingly the van was unloaded and the furniture placed in the house. Early next morning two vans loaded with goods were seen .to: leave the house. After a painstaking inquiry Lacey and Higgins traced most of the stolen furniture to two auction rooms in the city. It was valued at over £500; valuable antiques, including a handpainted tea set, all of them worth nothing less than. 50 guineas, were sold for a few shillings. Included among the property stolen from Mr Johnson was a priceless collection of shells which he had intended presenting to the Museum authorities. These have not yet been recovered.

Other daring frauds were subsequently reported to the Prahran police. On June 16, £SOO worth of furniture belonging to Mr John Ride was removed from Mr F. B. Featherston’s storage premises at Hawthorn "West by an unauthorised person who represented himself on the telephone to be Mr Ride. The goods weTe removed to an empty house at Hawthorn West at the request of the man on the telephone. Some_ of the goods were traced to an auction room in Clarendon Street, South Melbourne, and the rest to another auction room in Collins Street. At the South Melbourne auction room a woman collected a cheque for £9O. Later Lacey and Higgins were informed that furniture valued at £SOO, the property of Mr Hands, of Murrumbeena, had been taken from the storage without the knowledge of the owner. The telephone trick was again used with success.

Tn the city on Saturday morning, Plain-clothes* Constables Lacey, Higgins, Arnold and Constable Light arrested a suspect. Later at the Prahran watch-house, Frederick Hey, 30, hairdresser, was charged with false pretences.