GENTLEMAN SWINDLER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14525, 12 November 1910, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENTLEMAN SWINDLER.

CONTINENTAL CITIES TOO HOT. An ex-naval officer and baronet's son, Robt. Henry Spearman, 27, was sentenced to three months' imprisonment at Westminster for frauds at Messrs. Lyons' restaurants, and obtaining £4 from Mies Violet Deane, of Thurloe Square, South Kensington, by false pretences. ' He dined at restaurants, and then, told the waitresses that he had no money to pay, referring them to friends. When the case was first before the court oh. the Friday the police said there were complaints of cheque frauds against the exofficer " all over the Continent." Spearman made a speech to the court in his defence, declaring that he had no more intention to defraud- than any other gentleman going to liis tailor's and ordering suits of clothes without money in his pocket to settle the- bill. A gentleman, who did noft give his name, but described himself as th& brother of a naval officer, and recently from abroad, volunteered the statement that Spearman's assertions as to his former position were quite true. He knew well, he said, Mr. Spearman led an honourable life as an officer in the navy. Detective-Sergeant Cornelisu explained that Spearman's account of his retirement from the navy was that- he was adjudicated a bankrupt, all his trouble being due to extravagance. Since 1907 he had been, associated with touring theatrical companies in Australia. Miss Violet Constance Deane told the court that in November, 1907, Spearman, who, with his father, had been previously introduced to her and her mother, called and, in frreat agitation, asked for the address of the lady who had introduced him. His father, he said, had met with a terrible accident, and was practically dying, consequently it was necessary for him to get to Scotland that night to see him. Miss Deane informed him that the lady was not in London. Spearman then became still more distressed and embarrassed, and at length asked her if she could let him have some money. He said he had not got his cheque-book with him, and expressed his readiness to write out a form of cheque on a sheet of notepaper. Miss Deane said she did not wish this, and after he had been handed £4 she asked him to let her know how Sir Joseph was when he reached Scotland, and he could send a cheque. He promised to do so, and left, and nothing more was heard of him. She wrote to the address of his father, and received a reply from the accused's brother. Miss Deane added that she had not been repaid her money, but she had a letter from a firm of solicitors offering, on behalf of some friends of Spearman to refund it. In answering Spearman's counsel the lady said that she certainly would not have lent the defendant the money had it not been for his story that his father was dying. She would have regarded it as great impertinence for a gentleman to borrow money from a lady except in extreme cases; surely that was not the custom.

Detective-Sergeant Reid said that when he read the charge over to Trim Spearman replied: " Yes, I know I told her my father ■was ill in Scotland, and I wanted to go .and .see him at once. I had to say something before I could borrow the money. That was not true, but I don't want my father to have to attend the court."

His counsel asked that the accused might be dealt with tinder the Probation of Offenders Act. His friends were prepared to find a home for him, as come of the incidents before the court were due to a tendency to drink. The magistrate said he did not know anything more difficult than what to do with a gentleman who turned swindler. Four years ago Spearman made London too hot for himself, and since then he had made foreign cities too hot. Reports of him had been received from all parts of the Continent, and now he had come back to London and begun airain. It was no use blinking it. He would do his best, but the whole thing seemed very bad, and prisoner would have to etay in gaol for three months.