THE BONNEFIN FRAUDS IN MELBOURNE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5634, 6 December 1879, Page 7

THE BONNEFIN FRAUDS IN MELBOURNE.

The intelligence that Thomas Creed, the coiner, who was yesterday sentenced to five wears'' imprisonment, is identical with the njan who in the month of July laßt perpetrated several cleverly executed frauds upon jewellers in the city, will doubtless occasion considerable surprise. The successful manner in which the frauds were ommittc', and the mysterious disappearance of the offender, the police being unable to obtain the slightest ti ace of him, caused the opinion to be generally entertained that he W ould succeed altogether in evading justice. It was on ISth April, that Creed's acts first attracted the attention of the police. On that day he leased a house in Simpson's street, East Melbourne, from Mr. Johnson, auctioneer. He signed a written agreement that tie would occupy the house for three months, and furthermore represented, that his nam°i was O'Brien, and that he had just come from the country. He engaged a little girl as servant, and at a subsequent period of the day visited the establishment of Messrs. Dennis Bros. ll* expressed his desire to purchase some jewellery for his wife, who was an iuvalid. Having selected about £100 worth from which h»s wife could take what she wanted, Mr. Lachal, a gentleman conuected with the establishment, accompanied Creed to the house at East Melbourne. Mr. Lachal remained iu the parlour whilst Creed retired with the jewellery to thebearooin on pretence of showing the articlas to his wife. After remaining in the parlour for half an hour, Mr. Lachal discovered that he had been made the victim of a swindle, and that the man who had accompanied him to the house had escaped by the back door, taking with him the jewellery. Creed next appears to have assuumed the name of Dr. BonneHn. On the morning of the 23rd July be called upon the landlady of So. 31 Fiizroy-street, £t. Kilda, and agreed to pay her 10 guineas per week for furnished apartments. He represented \ that his name was Dr. William Bonnetio, and thr.t his wife and two children would be | down in town on the next day. He stipulated that th i * lardlady should permit his brass plate to be placed on the doorway, And suggested improvements on tho premises, which were etfectud at a cost of several pounds. Immediate'}* a'terwards the brass plate bearng the name in large letters 44 Dr. vv. Bonne fio," was placed on the doo»*, and in tho mean time th-> so-called doctor ?grced with Mr. Willoughby, livery-stable keeper, to hire a horse and buggy from him for a fortnight; and ia r.rder to carry out his swindle: with better effect he engaged che services of a groom in livery. In the morning ho had ordered 1000 visiting cards from Mr. Williams, printer, in Longddale-streec west, and remained in town h-ng enough to rfceive 50, and when leaving said he would call back for the balance. In the afternoon he enjoyed a drive in the hired buggy with the groom in livery ; aud after traversiug all the fashionable drives in St. Kilda, be ordered the groom to drive to the j-wellery shop of Mr. Spann in Colli i Hero he produced his card and sele-.-t-rd ; ewell-. ry to the value of £26, presecting a cli que signed by himself in payment. In the same way he obtained £24 worth of jewellery from Messrs. Weuzel and Enes, Bcurke-street east, and £44 10$. worth from Mr. Goldstein, 13 urke street east. The last place vi-ited was the « stablishmenfc of Mr Gaunt. Here he selected jewellery to the value of £52 10i. He presented hiscaidand offered his cheque, but Mr. Gaunt demurred to a?cep ing the Utter. In the coolest manner possible he titular* d that, it wa* all right, and offered to take oueof the assistants in theshop to show him c'<at he was what he represented | himself to be. The offer was accepted, and j when Mr. G.-.tint's a-sistant saw the brass i plate he permitted 44 D.\ Bonnefin" to take j the jeweller'. On the same evening Dr. | Bonnfetin di: •[>,>.• ared from his lodgings, and, i in the a woman, panned the; jeweller)- h- had becom ft i obsessed of. The fraud was next day, but no trace of the s-.viruiJer could be obtained, and the "Bonneiin frauds" remained a mystery until the 6th of October last, when Thomaß Creed, the coiner, was arrested, aud then a clue was obtained which has led to the discovery beyond a doubt tkat Creed aud Bonnetiu are one an l the same person. Soon after Creed's arrest, on the morning of the 6th of October last, the detectives began to entertain the suspicion that he was the 44 Dr. Bonnefin" for whom they had so long searched in vain. Detectives Coleman and Lovie had charge of the cas-, and the former asked him if he were not the person who had represented himself a3 Dr. LVnnefin. He said he wa9 uot, but in his pcsse'&ion a pawn ticket for some of the jewellery obtained from Messrs, Dennis Bros, and the other jewellers was found, and he then admitted having pawned the jewellery, but said that he had received it from another man. Mrs. Creed, who was implicated with husband in the charge of uttering base coin, was also spoken to, and she admitted having pawned some of the jewellery, which she said she had received from her husband, who t j'M her iw had bought it by giving bills. A fewdavs ail doubt as to whether Creed was Dr. Bom.efin was satisfactorily set at rest by his bc-ing identifie-d by the groom whom he in "St. Kilda, by Mr. William?, who pr.rited his cards, and by Mr. Lachal. All this*.* picked him out from a number of crmiub. The detectives have also compare ! the writing in the cheques signed "W. Bonntdn," and find that it resembles closely documents in Creed's handwriting found in his possession when arrest-d. One strange feature of the case is that Creed should have so long eluded the police, but that is accounted for by the great change which Las taken place in his appearance since hifi arrest. His hair is naturally darbin colour, but wh* ii he represented that he was Dr. Boncerin it was much lighter, and must therefore have been dyed, whilst he was clean shaved. When Creed was seen in Collingwood, prior to his arrest, his hair was quitea different colour, and did not answer the description given of Bour.etin. Since he hag been in gaol, however, the dye which he had been using ha 3 worn off, and when seen by Messrs. Wiliiams, Lachal and the grcom, he was at once identified. Creed will be brought before the City Court on Monday next and charged with obtaining goods by means of valueless cheques. The prisoner was at one time a wardsman in the Melbourne Hospital, and, when subsequently residing in the neighbourhood of Brunswick, it was a well-known fact that he delighted in continually changing his appearance, s » that frequently his most intimate friends did not kuow him. In effecting that purpose he was in the habit of using hair dye and" continually altering bis style of dress, so that it mav be fairly presumed he eluded the police by adopting similar tactics and complexly dunging hi 3 appearance immediately £*ter his successful raid upon the jewellers. ouice that time he has given the police a large nr.iount of work, and Detectives Coleman as i Lovie are to be congratulated on havimr an expert swindler-—Agi t Kovetr.b .*r 20.