BLACKMAILING GANG.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19612, 14 April 1927, Page 13

BLACKMAILING GANG.

STORY IN LONDON COURT. UNNAMED CAPTAIN DUPED. LONDON, April 6. A story of alleged and persistent blackmail, continuing for more than three years, whereby six men obtained £10,859 from an unnamed prosecutor, a retired army officer, called "The Captain," was told at the Bow Street Court to-day, when Maples, a pedlar; N. Stuart, a musician; Brown, a 'bookmaker; and Tannen, an engineer, were charged. The others, J. Stuart and Richards, have not been arrested. " The Captain," said that he met N. Stuart in November, 1923, and subsequently visited his fiat, where J. Stuart and Richards entered the room and made baseless accusations against him. They threatened to call the police unless they were given £SO. "The Captain" was seized with panic, and paid. Thereafter there were continuous demands, on a variety of pretexts. Allegedly to have N. Stuart sent out of England, sums of £95 and £Bl were paid; the alleged illness of N. Stuart's wife, and then her death, cost "The Captain" £l2O and £2OO. In all, in 1924, J, Stuart and Richards received £BOO. Maples, Richards and N. Stuart, who said he had com« back, continued the squeezing process during 1925. Tannen appeared in February, 1926, posing as a detective. He said he had been wanting to arrest N. Stuart for misappropriating bonds, and accused " The Captain" of attempting to defeat the ends of justice. "The Captain" paid £BSO, ostensibly to replace the missing bonds, and £250 for Tannen's expenses. J. Stuart three days later produced letters which he threatened to post. He demanded and got £2OOO. Maples, in March, 1926., said that N. Stuart must be sent to South Africa, and he got £4OO. In the same month J. Stuart said he wanted to buy a garage, and got £BOO, but in November he said he was going to South America, and got another £BOO. In December he said he had been married, and got £2OO. Brown impersonated a detective, boarded "The Captain's" yacht at Amsterdam, and undertook to square things if given £I4OO. . He got it, but later he said this was insufficient, and asked for and got £IOO for his own expenses. When "The Captain" threatened to consult a solicitor, Maples and the two Stuarts produced posters, denouncing "The Captain," with which they threatened to placard London.