£6000 FRAUD SPOILT

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 26 September 1927, Page 5

£6000 FRAUD SPOILT

BY GIRL'S INTUITION.

SHE WENT TO THE POLICE. Sydney, September 18. A girl’s intiition. ami swift action in consequence, thwarted an ingenious fraud on the Commonwealth Bunk this week. The amount involved in the scheme was £6OOO, which, the police believe, was only a tithe of the amount the bank would have lost only for the girl's intervention. The girl has been in Australia only two years, having come from Scot, land. She was anxious to obtain a trip Home again, and answered an advertisement in a Sydney newspaper which purported to seek a girl as secretary-compatiion to a lamdv tra veiling to England. A young man visited her home after her application had been sent m. and professed to be satisfied with her abilty and credentals. She went to an office next day. and met two men, who told her thev had engaged another grl prevously. but that she had left suddenly wthont completing certain papers.. Her first job would be to sign these papers in the name of the previous secretary, end take them to the Commonwealth Bank. She signed as directed and took the papers to the bank. They were orders to the bank to transfer £6OOO worth of Commonwealth inscribed stock, held in the name of the McCaughev estate, into Commonwealth bearer bonds. The McCaughev estate has nearly i:.”x,.i«Jo in inscribed stock. Bank officials were satisfied with the signature on the order—subse quently established to be a forgery—and told the girl to return at 2 30 p.m., when tfie bonds would be ready for issue. Thinking over the circumstanoea, and taking into consideration the fact that ner employers were comparatively poorly dressed, the young woman thought there might be something wiong with the transaction. With this suspicion firmly established in her mind, she hurried to the criminal investigaton branch at Sydney polce headquarters. Immediate enquiries by detectives soon established the fact that the McGaughey estate trustees had issued no such order, and a trap was a'r ranged. The girl had to meet one of her employers at 2.30 p.m., to hand over the bonds, and jrhen this meeting took place detectives closed in and arrested the man. A few minutes later thev arrested a second man. pointed out by the irirl us her other employer. The police claim that the signature on the order was a perfect forgery, and believe that had the attempt to get the £6OOO succeeded, much greater inroads on the McCnughev holdings would have been made subsequently.