WHO WAS THE ROBBER?

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXI, Issue 2260, 20 April 1926, Page 7

WHO WAS THE ROBBER?

A PRUSSIAN SENSATION. JUDGE AND WIFE ARRESTED. Social circles were .shocked to-day when the police arrested Judge J tiergins, Chief Judge of the Prussian State Criminal Court, and his wife on a charge of having defrauded insurance companies, hanks and merchants as a means of obtaining funds tor keeping up their fast social life and taking luxurious journeys into foreign countries.

The surprise is all the greatest since Judge Juergens was recently transferred from a Berlin Court as a reward for his effective handling of numerous

{cases against Communists. Both Judge ! Juergens and his wife are known to > have possessed comfortable fortunes, I which they have apparently squanderI od. | Last August, while he was serving J in the Kolberg, Pomerania Court, the ' Judge reported that his hotel room had i been robbed of jewellery valued at j 15,000 marks. Insurance companies settled the claim for 5000 marks. j Next a robery Occurred in the Judge's | apartment at Stargard. The police found furniture broken, a parrot killed, a marble statue overturned and picJ tares smashed. The Judge reported : ; the loss of a pearl necklace valued at I 21,000 mark- and other jewellery and ? valuable court papers against the Coni- • munists. He also showed the police I a number of threatening letters al- \ legedly from Communists. | After investigating the peculiar eir- | ciinistauces of these robberies the dej tectives charged the Judge and his . f wife with having faked the robberies

and destroyed the papers as a means of recovering insurance moneys as

well as having written the threatening letters in order to give the impression that the crimes were committed for political motives. In hoth places, Frau Juergens made a number of debts with merchants, borrowed

from friends and cashed cheques with-

out having sufficient covering funds. Thirty cases of fraud have been entered against the pair, ranging from 5 to 2000 marks, and totalling 35.000 marks. This morning the Judge was arrest-

ed in Cassel, where he had gone on business and returned to Berlin tonight. His wife was also taken into custody. Both deny guilt, and the Judge's story sounds so plausible that

there is a belief he did not know of

the trickery, which nwiy have been carried out by his wife. He maintains that the robberies are genuine and the stolen papers of great worth to the Cunununists. The threatening let-

ters weie written by the errand boy in the employ of Frau Jticrgens, the detectives believe. They also charge her with cashing bad cheques.