YOUTHFUL IMPOSTER.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLV, Issue 60, 11 March 1911, Page 2

YOUTHFUL IMPOSTER.

-BROUGHT TO BOOK

CHARGES OF FORGERY

(N.Z. Times Special.) AUCKLAND, March 8. The very young man who was able to make several people in Auckland believe that he was the Hon. Evelyn V. Kitson, second son of Lord Airedale, was before the Police Court today charged on three 'counts with false pretences1, also with having attempted suicide by taking'morphia. He is a very tall and very narrow youth, with a small head, weak features and big, eager eyes, and he does not look clever enough to deceive anybody. However, he had credentials ol sorts from somewhere, and he put up at a good hotel in Auckland. There ho met sundry people, treated them" to much wine, it is said, at the landlord's expense, went to the races and had bets, and all the things which foolish youths who have a great deal too much money are said to do. He had arranged . a little supper, too, at which there were to be lots of« things to eat and drink, and mayhap a little peroxide, but it was discovered in the meantime that the boy was not really a lord,1 arid he had left in a hurry. The jterty arrived on time, but the host had left. The young man's methods- were of the simplest, and so obvious that they escaped question. He talked in the most foolish way about the thousands of acres wortiT thousands of pounds which he proposed to .buy, and, on the strength of these foolish boasts and a fairly good address, he was able to give himself no end of a good time at no expense. Nohe of these things got him into trouble, however. FORGERY OF CHEQUES.

What did v lead to exposure was writing things down—rotherwise, forgery. He signed the name of Evelyn V. Kitson to two cheques—one for £20, which he exchanged for gold at the establishment of G. Fowlds, Ltd., and one for £6, which he cashed at 'an hotel at Papakura. He also 'signed the name of.Mr A. M. Myers, M.P., to another cheque for £7, and duly iobtaised cash for it. He was .arrested eventually, after having ■first swallowed morpKia in an endeavour to take his life. Finally, after his removal from the hospital to the gaol, he admitted to Detective Quarterman that his name was not Kit3on, that he was not a scion of any noble house, that his real name was Gordon Palmer-, and that he had done this sort ofjthifig before. He was charged undw^he name of Albert <xibbs, otherwise Kitson ', with the offences already mentioned. He pleaded guilty to all the charges and was sent to the Supreme Court for sentence.