MILLIONS AND MYSTERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19838, 7 January 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

MILLIONS AND MYSTERY.

SB* CHABJJBB DTTDLHT,

NEXT-OF-KIN FEAUDS. ' MANY PEOPLE VICTIMISED. • • • ' X" v -/' ! --' • ■•■■•• wL'. -,>. CRASH COMES AT LAST. • • -V >AVI£m «■» 4 " *?*• v >£>(•£ v- .. " ** f'>*»•-- >• '• '■ ■•' ' " *'"* ' ' •'• * - 1 -. ; ' . *. * "• "*■'•••;.• - .-.wr SWINDLERS GO TO PRISON, *

No. V. Along the front of an office overlooking Market Street, Manchester, there appeared one day " the words,- in gilt letters, thtee '. height, _ "Next-o^kin A the samejtime similar offices wereV opsped in Londijh, Birmingham and Glasgow. They all belonged to the jtame firm, which consisted of five men, one of whom was •< a solicitor. Among the thousands of persons who Were not content merely to look at the fascinating sign on the Manchester establishment was a widow. She entered it, and, after stating that she understood from her father that *he was entitled to a certm aaked;3t.lfcg?nld bWgot for ,fcer. "Strange to say," replied the manager, •*I know, more than you do about the property. "If could be "Oh, indeed!" said the gratified lady. "That's very nice, I'm sure." Thau she paid 22s 6d for preliminary investigations, and a few days later handed over an additional £2 2s, which, she was told, was wanted for the deeds to go through the Probate Office. Then there was a further demand for "£6, £B, or £9," which die also met. Widow. Keeps;-oa;f*ytog. • . requested lw- leKSr to call at ti»"£fficOSttJediately.

ThinESig that her money haß arrived, she reaiched the place before it bad opened, to find at the door a queue of w&men with equally high hopes. Some of them had brought bags to carry away their money, and one stated that she ■would insist upon having beta —a sum of £9ooo—in gold. Another had not only sold all her household furniture,, but obtained a loan of £ls to pay the fees required- by the agency. Ail" that the "m&ssr.:riitia: ::Wanted for, hsweypr, was to-give the manager £1 7s 6d, sign a docoment, that in a favf.j&ys £ls would be required of her to administer at SomOTset-House. When she had paid this amount, she and the manager travelled to London, and went together to Somerset House, where he took her from room to room, and finally said that the person he wanted was not there.

Subsequently she made three more paymerits, amounting in all to £33 18s, and the mnnager then remarked that everything would be in train. "it- should hope so," said the widow tartly. "If you're not tired of wanting, I'm tired of pujing." "Very likely/* was the reply. "But you won't be tired of riding about in your carriage presently." Rival Claims te a fortune. While the lady was still, waiting for her estate, the agency organised a tour, in the course of which one of the fortune-finders delivered a lecture at Stockport on "Unclaimed Property of Next-of-kin Lying in the Hands of the Government." The ' Audience, which filled the building to the doors, listened spellbound as the speaker described the vast-accumulation of ownerless wealth awaiting claimants, and at the close many people straggled desperately tc reach the platform in their anxiety to relieve the Government of some of it. Soon, consequently, the agents were hard at work raking in fees and handing out for signature agreements, powers of attorney, and other documents. As a result of this-meeting, the agency -was -empowered to-- recover ,a certain estate, which was estimated to be worth between £400,000 and £600,000. To this there were. two. large bodies of claimants —one in the town, the other in a neighbouring village—and each was headed by a grey beard of immense sagacity, by whom all his relatives swore. It was the village section that first approached the agency.

Elaborate Genealogical Tree t At the outset there was drawn np an enormous genealogical tree, in which the peiligree of the family, including its brunches in the Colonies, was given from the sixteenth century, "and a*opy of this became a prominent feature of the, Manchester office. The .thing was so impressive that the village section promptly gathered with a view to' raising funds. A meeting-was held at the local hotel, and, as the admission charge was ss, and between two and three hundred persons were present, a goodly sum was obtained. Matters then seemed to go wonderfully ;well for a time. But the villagers bad a terrible shock. Their man, the opposition asserted they were prepared to prove, was illegitimate! Ihis was a fearful blow to everybody on the [villagers' side except the manager of the Manchester office, who remained; unper- | turbedL The difficulty coui d be g&t over, he pointed. out, by proving that grandfather was born in wedlock, and the most satis- j factory means of doing this would be to produce somebody who was present at the claimant's birth, and was able to swear that be was the person he represented to be. This was all very well; but, as the claimant was seventy-three, the witness would have to be about one hundred years old, and where was he or she to be found? In the end, howeyeir, a imeruber of the; family unearthed : a centenarian who was} able and willing tb. give the desired evidence 7- -• Nearly Throwing Up Sponge. It was then the turn of the town section. The villagers, they were informed, were going to contend that the lown section man was illegitimate! Now, ha was ninety-three. So, when they were told, as the others had been told, that they should produce somebody who was present at his birth, and they realised that that somebdy would have to be about 120 years old, they were for straightway throwing up the sponge. But a varnished account of a happening, in Shropshire tended to- restore their equanimity. They were informed that a local claimant to an estate .in that county had, through the agency, recovered the estate and war, then in possession of it. whereas he was actually in the hands of the police for trespass. Some time previously he and a relative had been adjrised by the agency to go to the estate, enter 4 certain farmhouse, lock the door, and admit nobody for three day* and three nights. The men had done as directed. After they had been in possession a short time, llffewo constables, accompanied by a cnjwd of labourers armed with pitchfork came,, and, on being refused admission* .broke

open the door, and took th« claimant and rms brother to the police station. So the ; Stockport men wore looking forward, not i to an indefinite period of ease in tli&ir ancestral hall, but to a definite period of imprisonment. ! Still, the town section, though they were partly mollified by a < specious account of this happening, suspected that *,hey were being victimised by the art known as "working both side»," and for this and"other reasons they attended in force a "strictrly private and confidential" meeting of the villagers at the local hotel. The principal object of this meeting was to discuss the* allegation of illegitimacy, and "foreigners" were neither (invited to it nor expected to be present. , When, then, the town claimants entered the room in which it was being held, there was tremendous uproar, and it was only with the utmost difficulty that a riot was prevented. A further meeting was arranged; but before it could be held the crash came. The agents, on the information of the widow and many other persons, were arrested, whereupon it was found that they had been engaged in, widespread frauds. In the Manchester office alone were about 270 bundles of wills, as well as plans of estates sufficient to fill a small cart. All of the swindlers were given long terms of imprisonment, and for similar frauds one of them was afterwards sentenced at' thd Old Bailey to ten years' penal servitude.