SPURIOUS BANK NOTES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 101, 27 April 1909, Page 3

SPURIOUS BANK NOTES.

A CLEVER FORGER'S WORK

CHRISTCHURCH SHOPKEEPERS

VICTIMISED

In January last between £600 and £700 worth, of cancelled Bank of NewZealand bank notes, ranging in denominations from one-pound to tenpounds, and a quantity of jewellery and plate, were stolen from a safe m the parcels office of the General Post Office, Wellington, but although a man had been posted5 as ' 'wanted" in connection with the theft, no trace oi him or any of the property was discovered until last week. It was believed at the time1 that the stolen notes and. other articles were removed to Australia and that the -.perpetrator of the robbery had also left the Dominion. On Saturday and Mond-iy last, however, the local detective foroe was warned that some of the cancelled notes were being circulated in Christ-church. , The notes stolen from the parcels office were all cancel led by punching a round hole, about the size of, a shilling-piece, through the middle of the notes, and an ink- scrawl over the signatures of the Lank officials who had endorsed them. In order to restore /the notes to their genuine appearance, a number of onepound notes were cut up in ord-^r io get the impress of the numeral "1' that appears on the back of onepound notes, and gumming this on the back of the "doctored" notes, so as to coyer the central device, and tracing over the face with indian. ink the colours a facsimile of the portion punched out. The work was roost skilfully carried out, and it woiH be a difficult matter for anyone not lorewarned to detect the imposture from a cursory inspection of the notes. The erased names of the endorsers have also been cleverly retouched out. It has been stated that the denominations of notes put in circulation m Clmstchurch vare £1, £5 and £10, but this is incorrect, as only one-pound notes have so farbeen traced, and it is also incorrectly stated that the notes have made their appearance m various parts of .New Zealand, as it is now \known that the man- who is said to be responsible for thei: circulation only arrived in New Zealand from Australia on Wednesday, April It and came to Ohristchurch th-- noxi day. The local detective fore" as soon as they were apprised of the spurious notes being in circulation, set, to work to find the man -responsible for the forgery and uttering, xt is now believed that the man Who t-s 1 wanted" for the robbery from the parcels office 'at Wellington and the man who has been circulating the notes in Ch.ristch.urch ■ are identical, anc he is described as being ;' tall, thin man, with a sallow, clean-shaven face, and rather commanding appearance. Tlje detectives on Wednesday obtained clues, and the suspected man was traced to a well-known private hotel in the city. Detective Ward went to the premises about nine o'clock on. Wednesday morning, but the man had apparently seen the detective coming or been forewarned, and managed to get off the premises unobserved. vThe suspected man, however, had left in a great hurry, not even waiting to get his hat, and on the room he occupied being searched about 120 one-pound notes ready ior circulation were found, together with a quantity of material that had been used in the process of "faking the notes. It is now known that shortly after the suspecited person lei t the hotel he called at a certain hatters shop in the centre of the town -.and purchased a hat. Since' the tacts surrounding the circulation of sp1""" ious notes have been published the culprit responsible for them has taken special precautions to disguise himself and elude the police, but the detective force has informed the police in other districts, and a sharp lookout will be kept on all trains and steamers, so that this clever criminal should shortly be brought to justice. It is tolerably certain also that the. circulation of the notes has been stopV ped-—Lyttelton Times.