CLUE OF A WATCH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14145, 21 August 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

CLUE OF A WATCH.

COUNSEL'S STORY OF £1600 FRAUD ON WELL-KNOWN BANK. The Parr's Bank fraud case, which is al-

leged to have been hatched in New York, again occupied the attention. of the West London magistrate on a recent Tuesday. The accused is Henry Clifford; alias Conrad Hams, of the Grand Hotel, Northumberland Avenue, and he was brought up on I remand charged with obtaining from Parr's Bank the sums of £100 and £1437 14s, by false pretences. . ■ Mr. R. D. Muir, who prosecuted, ,said at the outset that he proposed to ask the magistrate to alter the charge to on© of uttering two bills of exchange for £1637 lis.

Counsel went on to say that the prisoner passed as Conrad Hams in New York. Conrad Hams was married in England some years ago, and he had an account at. tho Not ting Hill branch of Parr's Bank. Ho went to New York, and in March became clerk to Messrs. J. S. Bache and Company, bankers, of New York. After alleging that Hams had destroyed a bill of exchange upon the Swiss Bank for £1 10s 2d, and substituted for it a forged bill for £1637 14s, Mr. Muir said that this latter sum was forwarded to Parr's Bank, Hams stat ; :ig that he wished to re-open his account. Later Hams asked the bank to send £100 to an attorney in New York, the object being to discover whether the forgery had been- successful. The bank remitted by cable the £100.

Some time afterwards Harns called at Parr's Bank and asked them to guarantee a cheque for £1437 3s lid. The bank declined, and Earns took bank notes for it. In the meantime the Swiss Bank had notified Messrs. Bache and.Co. of the matter.

A £500 note was changed at the money exchange of Mr. Hands at Charing Cross Yard by a person not identified, and "ft second £500 note was changed by another money changer named Sutton, of Victoriastreet. While at. Sutton's Harns produced a watch which he said he had bought at a shop in the Strand. . "This was a useful piece of information," proceeded Mr. Muir, "which prisoner unconsciously gave, because the police, following very quickly upon his track, got this information from Mr. Lawler, who was at the money-changer's, and wont to the emporium in the Strand, got a description of the man who bought the watch, and left instructions, with the result that after some considerable time prisoner called to get a glass for his watch. The gentleman in charge of the emporium acted with great discretion, and asked Hams to call again in about half an hour, when his watch would be ready. This Harns did, and he was taken into custody by the police, who had been notified." MARRIAGE AT DOVER. Mr. Muir added that Harns, after drawing, the money, went to Dover, and wrote to Mr. Bache, stating that if no prosecution followed he would repay by instalments. .'•

It was a curious fact in the history of Henry Clifford that he went to Vienna, where he deposited some of the proceeds of the forgery. He also met and made love to a young lady there, brought her to Dover to' the same place where Conrad Harns had written to Mr. B ache, and married her. If the prisoner committed bigamy, it : was a matter to be considered another time. Mr. Muir said he hoped to be able to trace the movements of prisoner from the time he left New York, and he thought prisoner would have eventually to abandon his contention that he was .Henry Clifford and not Conrad Herns. ,

Mr. Hugo Lyon, of Messrs. Bache, New York, : identified the prisoner as Conrad Harne. The prisoner, he said, could converse in English,- German j French, and Russian. , . ;

John Chishohn, jeweller's assistant, of Coldharbour Lane, Brixton', stated that he was in the employment of the Crown Emporium Jewellery Company, 418, Strand, on June "1, when he sold a gold watch for £17 to the prisoner. The prisoner tendered a £100 note in payment, but they could not give him change, and he then paid for it with gold. Four -days later the witness received . a visit from the police, to whom he gave a description of the man, and when, on a Saturday, the prisoner called again at the shop for the purpose of having a new glass put in the watch and the case repaired, he told him to come back in half an hour, and in the meantime telephoned to Scotland Yard, and two detectives arrived. The prisoner was remanded.