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King Country Chronicle, Volume XVIII, Issue 1856, 1 September 1923, Page 5

FORGE^TOSTMARKS. BOGUS BETTING OFFICES. (Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received 2.30 p.m.) London. August 31. The Daily Chronicle reveals an extraordinary turf swindle, in which 20 men were engaged, including several well connected naval and military ex-officers belonging to well known West End clubs. They were associated with three American confidence tricksters.

Their chief device was an attempt to swindle bookmakers by forging the postmarks on letters containing betting commissions. Members of the gang, by means of forged references and other devices, opened credit accounts with leading bookmakers. The letters were sent from the provinces to accomplices in London, addressed in pencil. These addresses were rubbed out, and the envelopes readdressed to bookmakers after they had been steamed open and the names of the winning horses inserted. Finally, the date or time on the postmark was altered to make it appear that the bets were posted on the morning of the race, and the letters were left in the bookmakers’ letter boxes, as though they came” by post.

Fortunately some bookmakers had arranged for all their letters to be delivered from the post offices in locked mail bags, so the attempted frauds were detected.

The gang also defrauded backers by running bogus betting offices.