CLEVER IMPOSTORS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20508, 8 March 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

CLEVER IMPOSTORS.

DRAMATIC ARRESTS.

DETECTIVES AS " DUPES,"

BANK-NOTE MACHINE TRICK.

; A pair of international one a Pole and the other a Roumanian, who for years past had* earned a handsome income in the principal cities of Europe by a novel and ingenious imposture, have come to grief in Berlin. They unwittingly put their heads into the lion's mouth by trying to swindle police officers. Their speciality was to persuade people with more cash than principles to finance the pretended forgery of banknotes. A couple of years ago the pair secured a haul of £4600 by this means in Berlin. For obvious reasons, however, the bulk of their victims preferred to lose the money advanced rather than run the risk involved in denunciation. Recently the two impostors returned to Berlin, and a few days later, smartly dressed and selfassured as usual, they scraped an .acquaintance with two prosperous-looking Germans who were sitting at. the next tableau the entrance hall of an hotel. From motives which were possibly not identical, the friendship between the two couples ripened rapidly, and before long the foreigners felt it safe to impart the secret that they were the only men in the world who could produce absolutely impeccable dollar notes cheaply and swiftly. When the Germans politely expressed scepticism, they were told that, if they

liked,, they .could see.the-trick. done ohce"and~ifi'their own h"ome7" This offer, was. accepted, and the four drove to the'.foreigners' -hotel to get the necessary implements, which, packed in cases, wfere carried "to (lie residence of one of the; Germans. Here an apparatus 1 with various containers and rubber lubes', a copying press, a spirit burner, a red lamp, bottles of diverse sizes and contents, and sundry other odds and ends were laid out on a table with much,mystery and show of precaution. Then after abundant hocus-pocus a 500dollar (£100) note was placed betweentwo sheets of paper, put into the press, aud presently taken .out- with a. duplicate bearing a different number. The Germans were much impressed, but • one of them .asked.that the process might be repeated. To this the foreigners readily agreed, but at the moment when the press was about to be screwed up tjie Germans seized the handle, and, drawing out the two sheets of paper between which the impression was supposed to take place, showed that they already contained two bank notes, one having been inserted, at: tho last moment by dexterous sleight of hand. Before the swindlers had time .to recover their self-possession one of the Ger-

mans, producing from his pocket the necessary authority, declared them under arrest. The incautious swindlers ftad had the misfortune to try their trick on a commissioner of the Berlin criminal police. Intimation of the arrest has been sent to the police of all the capitals of Europe.