CONFIDENCE TRICKSTER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18577, 8 December 1923, Page 11

CONFIDENCE TRICKSTER

LONG LIST OF FRAUDS.

NOTED CRIMINAL ■ CAUGHT.

LONDON, Nov. 24. No capture of a criminal recorded for a long time has given Scotland Yard more satisfaction than the surest of Daniel Melaney, known as " Nobby " Melaney, who has been sentenced to five years' imprisonment for obtaining £400 from a Filipino doctor by a confidence trick, says the Weekly Dispatch. Melaney's real name is believed to be Delaney. His parents were humble Irish folk who settled in Australia before his birth. He is a -jowled, cleanshaven man of enormous strength, and is a cold, calculating villain. He dominated the men and women with whom he worked. He .was always carefully groomed, and did not look his age of 52, in spite of his irregular life. He aimed only at the "biggest game," and usually stayed at the kind of hotels which millionaires patronise. His genial habits and the way in which he threw money about disarmed suspicion, and suggested that he was a simple-minded overseas visitor enjoying the new-found wealth left to him . by his rich uncle. The "rich uncle" story was often the foundation of his confidence tricks. Melaney and his confederates waited four months and spent £1000 on one victim, from whom they eventually took several thousands. It is estimated that Melaney cleared £250,000 by confidence tricks. Many of his victims were too mortified by the way they were taken in to inform the police. Melaney first appeared in London 16 years ago.