IMPOSTER SENT TO PRISON.

Matamata Record, Volume XVI, Issue 1443, 20 July 1933, Page 5

IMPOSTER SENT TO PRISON.

ARREST AT MORRINSVILLE Tale of Bogus Advertisements.

Described by the police as “ ah imposter,” who had posed as a wealthy sheepfarmer, Hector James McDonald, alias Heywood, pleaded guilty in

the Morrinsville Court on Monday before Messrs. C. M. Gummer and W. T. Osborne, J.’sP., to several charged' Accused had gained some notoriety by escaping while left alone exercising in the yard of the Morrinsville Police Station on Tuesday of last week. He was recaptured near Taupo on Friday. The charges to which accused pleaded guilty were those of being , a rogue and a vagabond, being an "incorrigible rogue (escaping from prison), three charges of obtaining credit by fraud at Wanganui, and charges of theft of a coat valued at £2 and shoes valued at £1 10s at Eltham. The police stated that accused had been separated from his wife for the past seven years, and for some months he had been leading a vagabond life. Prior to coming to the Morrinsville district he had caused advertisements to be published in

papers in the Wanganui and Woodyille districts asking for a housekeeper, and purporting to be a wealthy sheepfarmer. He received , many replies. Some applicants had , been put to great expense in meet- i ing accused, and in a number of ] other* cases applicants had stayed at home waiting to hear from him. j The police read one letter in | which accused had stated that he c was a sheepfarmer with 2700 acres j fid a new house with an electric s ove. e

Accused came to Morrinsville about six weeks ago, and caused a similar advertisement to be published in an Auckland newspaper. One reply was from a young lady in [Auckland, with whom accused made an appointment. He stayed the night at the girl’s residence, but the following morning he cleared out, and several articles, including a razor strop, were missing. The strop was later found in accused s possession. About a fortnight ago accused went to Cambridge and put another advertisement in a newspaper. Among the replies was one from Morrinsville. The applicant arranged to meet accused on July 6, but he. did not meet her, and she was stranded in the town and complained to the police. The following morning accused was arrested. Among accused’s possessions was a motor driver’s license which had been altered to the name of “H. McDonald,” but the name of “Leo Quinn” could be discerned underneath;. This was forwarded by the police to Eltham with the result that it was identified as the license belonging to Mr. Leo Quinn, a prominent golfer, whose coat, containing, the license, had been stolen, together with a pair of shoes, from the golf house at Eltham on March 30. Accused was wearing the coat and shoes when arrested. Accused was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment on the charge •of being idle and disorderly, two months’, imprisonment on each of the three charges of false pretences, and one month’s imprisonment on each of the charges of theft, the sentences to be cumulative, a total of ten months’ imprisonment. On the charge of escaping from custody he was sentenced to 12 months’ reformative detention.