AN IMPUDENT FRAUD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19939, 7 May 1928, Page 7

AN IMPUDENT FRAUD.

" SALVING THE LUSITANIA."

WOMAN PARTS WITH £SOO. FIVE YEARS IN PRISON. [from our own correspondent.3 LONDON, March 21. A sentence ot five years' penal servitude was passed at Lewes Assizes on Alfred laff Rntt, aged 47, for obtaining money x by false pretences from Miss Lascelles, a lady's companion, in connection with a plan to salve the Lusitania. Miss Lascelles parted with £SOO, but a second cheque for £IOOO was stopped. Mr. Justice Shearman heard the case.

Mr. John Flowers, prosecuting, said that Rutt, who took a bungalow from Mr. Cross, a Shoreham house agent, discussed with him the promoting of the Rutt Salvage Company and gave him a draft prospectus describing the company, the capital of which was said to bo £250,000. The document stated that "the plant which the company will use has been designed and invented by Captain Alfred Taff Rutt, and the company have been fortunate enough to purchase from him the rights of the plant for £50,000. The profits were estimated at £9600 a week, which left an ample margin to pay at least 100 per cent, dividend in the first year." "Rutt," continued Mr. Flowers, "showed Mr. Cross an article describing how ho dived 42 fathoms to survey the wreck of the Lusitania off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland. In this article Rutt stated that owing to his special apparatus he was able to remain under water for eight hours. He had a unique experience, because he was surrounded by monster conger eels,' which were the deadly enemy of divers."

Mr. E. T. Lascelles said Rutt told him lie had been big sea diving in his salvage ship Pembroke for 20 years. He wanted him to become a director in a company he was promoting—the British Marine Salvage and Dredging Company. Among others, he said, the Bishop of Chichester and Lord Inchcape had agreed to take up shares.

The Bishop of Chichester, interposed as a witness, denied any knowledge of Eutt or of his schemes.

Butt now explained that, owing to the absence of a full stop in a leaflet, he was under the impression that the gentleman who opened a bazaar at Shoreham was the Bishop of Chichester. "It is a mistake on my part, perhaps a humorous one," he said, "and I wish to apologise to Your Lordship for it." ' - /

Career as a Swindler. Mr. Charles Hugh Burwood, formerly in charge of the Royal School of Diving, Portsmouth, and now technical * adviser to a firm of submarine engineers, said, that he held the record for the deepest diva of any Englishman. That, was 38 fathoms (228 ft.) He remained under five minutes. Mr. Burwood, having told the judge that no attempt had been made to salve the Lusitania, said that the place where the vessel lay was one of the worst places for. diving round the British Isles owing to the Atlantic rollers. She was in 49 to 52 fathoms of water. A diver would only be able to stay down five minutes. Mr. Justice Shearman; It is not a commercial proposition to raise the Lusitania ? —lt -is not. • <■

William Harvey Shaw, a Felixstowe diver, stated that the diver in the photograph supposed to be descending to the Lusitania was himself and not Rutt. He was then working for the Rutt Salving Company in connection with the raising of the Princess Julianna, but had never seen Rutt go down or in diving dress. After his conviction, Rutt's long career as a swindler was described by a police superintendent. It was reported that Rutt was a married man with four children. At one time he was a coachman. Since 1901 he had been posing as an engineer and inventor. He was made bankrupt in 1912 with liabilities of £1025 and no assets. In 1015 ho was sentenced to six months' imprisonment in the second division for unlawfully wearing naval uniform. At the beginning of < the war he made out that he had a torpedo invention of great importance and he induced a man to finance him to the extent of £1250. He arranged a site at Gravesend to construct the torpedo, but vacated it. without discharging; his liabilities or paying the wages of his workmen.

Unsuccessful Salvage Attempt. On his release from a sentence of 20 months' imprisonment for fraud, he went to Bournemouth and Poole in November, 1919, and obtained the confidence of several men in the formation of a company known as the Rutt Salvage Company, Limited. Rutt was managing director of the compariv, which went into liquidation in 1920. Although a married man, Rutt became engaged to a woman at the house where he lodged, and he obtained sums of money from a number of persons in the district for shares in the company, including £650 from a woman. About March, 1920, as managing director of the salvage company, he engaged in an attempt to salve the wreck of the Princess Julianna off Felixstowe. He chartered for the purpose an old Admiralty vessel known as the Pembroke, which had since been broken up. He engaged divers and others, but the attempt was unsuccessful.