AUDACIOUS FRAUDS

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVIII, Issue 73, 27 March 1914, Page 2

AUDACIOUS FRAUDS

BY "MUSICAL GENIUS."

HEARTLESS ROBBERY OF CREDULOUS FRIENDS.

LONDON,. Feb. 13. The astonishing story of a girl's duplicity and of her victims' credulity was told at the Winchester Assizes in; a trial .which concluded yesterday ?f^ r !L, hearillg lasting a day and1 ahalf. The girl, Florence Louise Way, was indicted with her parents, Bertie and Elizabeth' Way, on thirty-six oounts accusing them of obtaining

£800 'by false pretences from Willie and Annie Maria Wheeler. The parents carried on a butcher's business a,t Bournemouth, and the , girl became acquainted with the Wheelers, to whom she posed as a musical genius. Believing in her story, and told- —lluit. was kt>pt N short of money at home, they ad- ; va'need her sums varying from 30s to £400 t» enter competitions, and pay fees, and to ' obtain^shares hi "an American^ syndicate", which was to exploit an opera which she said she had written, . and for which Mrs j. Wheeler suggested; the title '.'The ' American Girl."

ENTITLED TO MILLIONS

The girl told wonderful stories of having.won prizes ranging in value from £50 to £24J000, all of which she was to receive in' due course, and of being entitled' to £6,500,000 from the syndicate, into which she was supposed to have put the £400, together \yjth all her prize money and copyrights.

Mr Dan Godfrey, the conductor of the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra, was balled to deny that he had ever, advised the • girl or intrqduced her to Maidame Ada- Crossley or Kuibelik. The girl had invented a storjr of this hajture, adding that she had accepted An offer-tcrgp on a .tour abroad With those two faTß<ras artists, and that Kubelik desired to" purohase several of her compositions. She also obtained £100 to; enable' her to appear at Court (to play before the King. Mr Godfrey ' described the girl's 'compositions" as' a meaningless sorawl of notes.

PARTED WITH ALL THEIR MONEY.

So credulous were the Wheelers that they not only parted, with all the money they had, and all they could raise by selling jewellery, etc., but borrowed considerable sunis from friends, 'while the "daughter drew all her money from (the post offioe and olosed her account, denied herself a holiday and clothing, and also borrowed from friends-.to enable her to let the girl have £150. She also gave up her situation in order to go as companion with Florence Wa> when she went on tour. Eventually the girl confessed that the whole thin^ was a fraud. -

.Prosec'ition endeavored1 (to show that the bank notes which the girl received passed into her parents'

hands, but Bertie Way was found not guilty and discharged. Describing the case as an astonishing one, Mi- Justice Ridley yesterday sentenced the girl to 18 months' hard labor, and her mother to 12, months.