£5000 FORTUNE LOST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15482, 13 December 1913, Page 2 (Supplement)

£5000 FORTUNE LOST.

A sad story of a lost fortune was unfolded at Westminster Police Court when Mabel Agnes Lang, 36, the daughter of a deceased gentleman of means at Hastings, and wife of a former bank manager, was charged with her son Stuart, a well-edu-cated boy of 14, with robbing their furnished lodgings at Fentiman Road, Lambeth. The accused occupied a furnisned > room for three weeks, obviously suffering many privations. The landlady, missed the bed clothing, which police inquiry showed had been sold by the boy for very small sums to obtain food. When arrested the woman told Detective-ser-geant Stevens, W Division, that she had been driven to extremity, and that in fact she was almost starving.' Sergeant Stevens said that during the, remand fullest inquiry made showed that the case was a peculiarly sad one. Some ten years ago the woman inherited the sum of £5000 from her grandfather. Two years later she petitioned and obtained a divorce from her husband, who was at one time a bank manager in the Midlands. Accused had said she could get .no account of her money from a solicitor who had had the conduct of her. affairs, but, at any rate, she was reduced latterly to such penury that she had been sleeping out with her hoy on Clapham Common. The son, whose custody she was given on obtaining the divorce, had had a good deal spent on his education. Mr. Barnett, the court missionary, said he thought he should have no difficulty in finding a situation for the boy in an office. Mr. Horaco Smith bound over both defendants to come up for judgment if required, with the remark that the missionary would be their good friend and that there might yet bo happiness in store for them. Mrs. Lang was very much overcome, and left the dock weeping.