AN ARTIST IN CRIME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20426, 30 November 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN ARTIST IN CRIME.

PASTIME AT DARTMOOR. T

FOUR FALSE BANK NOTES

j. PRESENT TO THE GAOLER

•" HAVE A DRINK WITH ME.

An astounding story of skilful and audacious forgeries on a wholesale scale is told bv Mr. Charles Carew in the Sunday

Express. V Alfr&l Bortlnviek, his real name was I". T. Palmer—served a sentence of five years' penal servitude when quite young for forging a bank-note. lie used a mapping pen arid ordinary Indian ink. a lid passed his masterpiece on to an Irish cattle dealer, from whom lie bought a cow, which he subsequently sold in the Gloucester auction mart. Bortlnviek was at liberty but seine twelve/ months when lie was again sent to prison for forging bank-notes. They were better this time. Four of them had been passed on Birimngliam shopkeepers. While /he was in prison on this occasion he made the acquaintance of Everard Ecnnett, an Oxford under-graduate, a member of a distinguished family, who was languishing at Dartmoor for iorqing i» will to gain an estate. The scheme of his operations had been perfect, but the workmanship of his forgery had given him away. In Alfred Bortlnviek he revpgjjisifclthe, waster . forger, and great friendship sprang up between the two snpiiia".''."y /.v ■ y - ■ ■■•%. .

Expensive Joke with ; Prison Governor. ..While lie was in prison on that occasion.:.- Borthwick gave a wonderful demonstration ot' his abilities. A prison conference was sitting in London at the time, and.it was,suggested that a model should be made of Dartmoor and of the interior of a cell. Borthwick executed a model so bbautifu'l and so amazing that it was coni-m-ented' 011 with .wonder by ail the members of the conference and the then Home Secretary went to see him specially when ' he visited Dartmoor.

Captain Temple, the governor, told a humorous story about that occasion, dust before lie left for London he sent for Bortlnvick to congratulate him and thank him. Bortlnvick, with a grin, said: — *' That's all right, sir. Now you'll need a little ready money for expenses, sir. Just slip that in your pocket and have a drink with me!"

Th 6 prisoner handed the . governor four five-pound notes. Captain Temple was amazed. Then -the joke dawned on him. Bofthwick had forged the notes while he was working on his model. All was perfect except the paper. But Borthwick's little joke cost him three .ioiig-'yeara.of imp.visonment, because when Captain. Temple proudly produced the handiwork of his protege, and also the bank-notes, the Home Secretary said: — •"Bv Jove! J was going to have that chap.'s sentence remitted in view of his wonderful, work and give him another chance. But his bank-note, work is too .wonderful! -Ile'd better slay where he is."

Towns " Drenched" in Stamps. "When a convict is released on licence lie is kept under supervision of the police in varying degrees. If he is a jimown forger then a careful watch is .^JrepUta-.see-any signs that-may .bo apparent of his getting up to his old tricks again., . Bortlnvick went to Birmingham, ■where his wife kept a lodging-house, and ,though tiie jiolice watched fairly closely fie seemed to-be earning an honest living clerking. Then a. most curious thing happened. sF'or three or four weeks, every post office Sn the Birmingham area reported a drop in" the sale of postage stamps. The same .weight of mails was being carried, but a . jti'emendous fall in the sale of stamps was ' clearly established. More amazing still, yhile the- r post offices were selling few stamps,■ Birmingham and the surrounding towns-\Verc positively drenched in stamps. ."Mail order, houses were getting considerable prders, all paid for in stamps. Tile women-in the streets were asking shopkeepers to accept stamps in lien of money, and even the tramps were paying for- their nightly doss in stamps! Samples of all the stamps were sent to tile General Post Office, and then on to Scotland Yard, and were there compared by The experts all disagreed! It was now apparent that a forger of stupendous ability was at work, and the police knew perfectly well that there was only one man capable of work like this. .... Komance with a Pretty Girl.

Borthwick was kept under daily supervision. But lie just went to the draper's (shop tv he ye he worked, arid returned home again. One night the police raided his house—it was simply a perfectly respectable boarding house, Bortlnvick comnlained of persecution io his local i&LP'.f

JCo'i'. Borthwifck made occasional journeys into the country just ouiside Bir-;-mingl;ani. He had been followed there, and the police discovered that the object of his journeys was the pursuance of a romance with a pretty girl, the daughter of a small farmer. This, of course, .wasy not the business of the police, one of the detectives engaged on the : case 'thought that if anyone knew the - secret : that-cirl-must. / ,i . So. he addressed a letter as though'it had been sent.'by a girl to Borthwick. The letter accused him of betraying her, and expressed gratitude that he had proThised to run" off with her " as soon as all the* stamps are sold." The letter also referred to the farmer's daughter, of whom the /writer had beard. as a little fool, who must be kept quiet until the time came for elopement. Now this was a simple" countsy girl. ; The detective gave her the letter, telling • her that he thought she ought to read it. ■ 9'h'S result /was that she confessed that ehe had lent Borthwick the keys of an old .mill on/ the farm where lie and several others-Worked at something or other. .She • ; fell< as though the end of all things had come, and completely betrayed her lover, ;whom sho thought false to her. Arrest in the Old Mill.

Two nights later Borthwick availed ■vainly for his girl, and then went to the old mill, wfiich was reached by a bridle, path across sonic fields. lie went inside, lit a shaded candle, opened a trap door, - a "d descended sonie stairs. Five minutes later lie and Everard Bennett were ar rested after a fierce struggle. Remanded- to await assize, the two swindlers were committed to prison, and jn the meantime the farmer's daughter felt some qualms of conscience. .She did not admit to Jier lover that'she had betrayca hint, but she went to see him, and showed him the letter she had received. He expressed horror and indignation, and .wanted to know how such a letter had reached her. He ordered her to go to the. address motioned in the letter. She did —and found that she had been t he victim of a " clevc-r" ruse, Borthwick Avent to penal servitude for Sve years, po be followed by five years' preventive detention—ten years in all. The farmer's daughter waited for the detective, and aimed a blow at him with a sharp knife. A brass buckle of a belt he Avoro turned the point. She left him, and was found next morning on the steps of the mill. She had no brass buckle.-to turn the point of the knifo' '_lTie years passed away, ageing Borthivick, a gemg Bennett, but, not taking ft'Atky. from the abiliiy of the senior

partner. Together they served their time at Dartmoor-again,-'together they went to Camp Ilili; in the Isle of Wight. All through the ten years there they re : maincd, planning, plotting, dreaming! Just before he left prison, a Commissioner of Prisons, visiting, sent for Bortlnviek and talked to him. " Boithwick," he said from his chair in the governor's pleasantly furnished office. " What, are von—outside?"

Standing at the other side of the desk, erect, at his full height- of six feet four, his ,"light Iwown crisp hair heavily .streaked with while, his face deeply lined, stood Bortlnviek, a smile playing round lii.s lips. ' " A forger!" the convict replied instant 1 v.

"Yes. yes, 1 know," said the commissioner, " hut what is your proper work ? What do you intend to do when you get out?" "May I ask you a question ?" countered the convict.

" Certainly," , said the eoiiimissionei

" Can you. by any Act of Parliament which was ever passed, by fair means or by foul, keep me a single day beyond the sixteenth of next: month? Answer that!"

The commissioner glanced at the record.

" That is finite true," hn said. " TJiere is no question of our keening you—you ivili be free."

' " Yes." said Bortlnvick bitterly. " The Act which governs preventive detention states that a man may be released after he has served a single year if he is of good conduct. 1 have been of exemplary conduct, and yet you have kept me to the last day! And do you seriously think I am going to discuss my plans with you 1 My reply is-, ' Go to hell!' " That was the spirit in which Borthwick left Camp Hill Detention Prison. Very closely was. he watched when .he returned to Birmingham. His wife was stiil carrying 011 Ihe boarding house. Bortlnvick remained exactly where he was for two months. He never attempted to work, never moved a hand. Then—lie disappeared. * Then a most startling thing happened. Scotland Yard was called in by the Bank of England to investigate a most alarming series of forgeries, apparently carried out on tlie Continent. A small merchant, bank trading in the Aegean Sea ports passed through for clearance a positive deluge of Bank of England notes. Aliogether the notes* totalled two hundred thousand pounds. The notes were absolutely perfect, the numbering correct, according 10 current, numbering, but the lettering was wrong.

The Bank of England has a system of lettering, and only two or three officials know exactly when (lie letters will be changed. It is customary to take the name ot' a statesman like " Gladstone." Numbers 1 to 5000 may tie prefixed " G." ; 500 Lto 7000 " !i" etc. What was wrong with these notes was that the numbers were over-running the period set to tlio letters.

ihe process of detection was difficult. Greek and English detectives, tho latter specially lent, investigated the ca*e. Every town in Greece was searched Impossible suspects, and one of the English detectives thought he had put his finger on the matter when one day he saw strolling along the water front at the Piraeus, awaiting a ship, none other than Alfred Bortlnvick.

Bortlnvick was arrested in a flash, taken to the police station and immediately interrogated. Tie was excellently dressed. Also he was highly indignant. He demanded the immediate presence of the British and Turkish Consuls—the British Consul because he was a British subject, the Turkish because he was the. agent of Mahnioud, Teufik and Company, of Constantinople. engravers and designers. After a visit from tho Turkish Consul the Greek chief of polico refused to lake any further responsibility; he humbly apologised and let Bortlnvick go.