BOGUS COUNT'S TALES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20028, 18 August 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

BOGUS COUNT'S TALES.

RICH WOMEN DEFRAUDED.

EX-WAITER'S ' SWINDLES

£30,000 ■ IK FIVE YEARS. VALET AND A ROLLS HOYCE. A remarkable story of the influence wielded over women by a crippled exwaiter, wbo, born in a village, afterward posed as " Count Eustace of Boulogne," was told at the Old Bailey, London, Inst month, when Henry Anderson Conroy Irving Eustace, aged 22, who was charged with forging and uttering a telegram with intent to defraud and attempting to obtain sums of £6OOO and £844 from Mrs. M. *B. Stirling, a rich widow whom he met. at an hotel, was sentenced to 22 months' imprisonment with hard labour.

It was revealed that in five years Eustace had victimised women to the extent of over £30,000. In the charge before tho Court, it was alleged that, posing as a wealthy man, ho induced Mrs. Stirling to givo him four blank cheques which she had signed. He fdled in two of them, it was alleged, one for £6OOO and one for £844, and sent a telegram to Mrs. Stirling's bank in Doncaster, in her name, asking for the cheques to be honoured.

Cross-examined by Mr. Percival Clarke, Eustace said Airs. Stirling expressed her willingness to meet cheques so long as tlicy did not exceed £IO,OOO. She knew £6OOO was to be paid to satisfy a judgment against him and save him from imprisonment. She was to be repaid. The car for which tho cheque for £844 was made out was for Mrs. Stirling. A " Fatal Fascination." " I may be too old for it to be of any service to me," commented Mr. Clarke, " but will you tell mo wherein lies your fatal fascination ?" Eustace: I really could not tell you. I do not think there is such a thing. Mr. Clarke said Eustace was tho son of a wonian in a Cornish village. He was first a house-boy and then a waiter. In 1922 he was bound over for stealing from a house where lie was, lodging. He tlien went to Sidmouth as a waiter, and met with a motor-cycle accident which necessitated his going into hospital. There he met three benevolent elderly ladies, tho Misses Cornish. On one of these ladies, who sympathised with him, ho imposed to tho tune of £IO,OOO.

Miss Cornish was afterward plaintiff in an action which resulted in judgment being obtained against Eustace. Failure to pay rendered him liable to be sent to prison for contempt of Court, because it was thought that ho had a largo sum of money at his disposal. His banking account showed £18,670 passing through it in about -six weeks. 'This included two cheques for £7OOO and £10,500 drawn bv Mrs. Lindsay White, a charming benevolent widow who had family associations for years in Ceylon. Mrs. White parts with £19,500.

Eustace mot Mrs. White in the Royal Palace Hotel, Kensington. He told her he was Count Eustace of Boulogne, that ho had an old castle near Land's End, and that he was grandson of a well-known man in Ceylon. He said that he was temporarily "financially embarrassed, but that he could offer ample security, as he owned a house in Grosvenor Square, let to the Japanese Embassy. As a result he got from Mrs. White without any security in less than three weeks a sum of £19,500. The Common Serjeant, Sir Henry Dickens, K.C.: That should be a warning to wealthy ladies never to live alone in London hotels, especially if they are benevolent. (Laughter.) An action was brought in respect of this matter, Mr. Clarko proceeded, and judgment obtained against Eustace. The l'esult was that his Rolls Royco car was commandeered, and all that could be obtained from him was obtained. He was still in the position of having to go to prison unless he satisfied the other judgment, and it was to avoid that inconvenience that he told Mrs. Stirling a pack of lies and endeavoured to get nearly £7OOO from her. " A Blatant Young Liar." Detective-Sergeant Thomas said Eustace received a council school education in the village where he was born. He added that Eustace met a Mrs. Heath in an liotfil at Teignmouth in February 1927, told her a wonderful story about his wealth, and got about £ISOO from her. About this time ho bought a. motor garage at Walton-on-lhamcs, living in an hotel with a valet, a chauffeur and a motor-car. Tired of this, he went to a London hotel, where ho met Mrs, Lindsay White. You are a thoroughly plausible young rofrue," said the Common Sergeant, passing sentence. " You are a practical swindler and a danger to society. Your exhibition in the witness-box shows also that you are a blatant young liar.".