A PLAUSIBLE ROGUE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20420, 23 November 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

A PLAUSIBLE ROGUE.

DANGER TO COMMUNITY.

LONG LIST OF OFFENCES

" PAST EMBROIDERY DUG UP."

Bald on tho top of his head, and dressed in ;i well-worn blue serge.suit, I?ex Campbell Rennie, 47, had a somewhat haggard appearance which did not suggest the character of the plausible, polished scoundrel which was given him at the Uld Bailey. He admitted forging an agreement with intent to defraud, and endeavouring to obtain £1250 by it. The story of Rennie's latest exploit began 12 days after he was released on licence from a senf/mce of penal servitude in 1927. He"saw an advertisement of a perfumery and soap-making business lor sale, and proceeded to investigate. Although the deal was not completed, Ronnie proceeded to forge an agreement, and to try to re-sell the business for £2OOO. A police officer related his history to the court.

Son of an ium manufacturer's agent in the North nf England, Rennie had received an excellent education. He obtained a situation us junior clerk, but was dismissed about a year later on suspicion of having stolen a postal older. He then became an assistant schoolmaster at ligham, but lost- this situation, also

through being suspected of having stolen money from his landlady. Later, Rennie was headmaster of a school in Bodmin, Cornwall, hut he left owing money to a number oi tradespeople. lie then ran a poultry farm in Essex, and there were complaints there of fraudulent transactions. In 1903 he got possession of a London school by means of false pretences. lie represented himself as a Master of Arts, and pretended that he had had a commission in the Boer War.

Another attempt to get hold of a grammar school in Somerset as an M.A. \yith forged references failed. In 1908 lie was sentenced at the Old Bailey to three years' penal servitude. He then got credit by pretending lie was Captain Rennie of the 7th Ilussars. A similar sentence in 1911 was for victimising people in connection with a scholastic agency. In 1914 he got four years' penal servitude lor thefts from houses where he had gone as an insurance assessor. Released from prison in 1913, he obtained a position as secretary of a society in Norwich by means of false references. For this offence ho was fined £5. -He then joined the Army and became a bombardier in the R.F.^\.

This was Ronnie's highest military rank, although at times he posed as colonel. major and captain. He also claimed relationship with a bishop. In 1926 he cropped up as Ma jor Forbes, lie was then found to have a letter purporting to come from a branch of the Rank ot Canada, and representing that he had assets worth £15,000. Ronnie's last sentence was at Northampton in 1927, when he got three years' penal servitude for forgery relating to a business with which he was then associated. Ho was released on licence in

April last, his sentenco expiring in Janu arv next.

From the dock Rennie emphatically denied that he had tried to obtain £1250 by fraud, declaring that he offered debentures as security. " I have had four terms of penal servitude," he continued, " unci -every time I appear in court all this embroidery of my past is dug up. Passing sentenco of five years' penal servitude, tho Recorder, Sir Ernest \\ ild, K.C., described Rennie as a plausible swindler and a danger to the community. '* If you offend again," the judge added, " you will spend the rest of your days iti Camp Hill Detention Home. *