SPURIOUS TITLES

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 17 October 1921, Page 5

SPURIOUS TITLES

ATTEMPTED SWINDLING

BY CABLE—PE£BB ASSOCIATION—COPTEIGBT

PARIS, Oct. 15. 1 The Nice Court fined Leon Lafargc five hundred francs for assuming spurious titles., and sentenced him to five months" imprisonment for attempted swindling. Lafarge, who is a native oif Normandy, assumed the title of Prince De Vitanval and had himself crowned King of Tranecaucasia. He notified the Great Powers of his accession and applied for the admission of his kingdom to the League of Nations. He gave French shopkeepers orders totalling three million frajics, including a gold crown and sceptre, and ermine robes for himself and his queen. When arrested he possessed a few franca, and explained his lack of cash was duo to the financial stringency from which the whole world was suffering.