INGENIOUS FRAUD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20508, 8 March 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

INGENIOUS FRAUD.

VALUELESS CHEQUES.

TRICK BY "OLD LADIES,

Scotland Yard detectives have - been informed of an ingenious fraud which has been carried out in Torquay and other towns on the South Coast of England by two girls who disguise themselves, as elderly ladies. In every, case the method has been the same.

A local firm receives a letter purporting .to be written by Mrs.. Blank, who states .she is residing at a. first-class hotelShe asks for certain frocks to be sent to her at 1 , the hotel on", approval. On the morning the letter is received, Mrs. Blank telephones to' the firm and tells them that she will call herself at the shop and, - therefore, they need not trouble to send the frocks.

Some time later:an: apparently, elderly lady, with dark horn-rimmed and wearing rather old-fashioned clothes, walks into the shop with •a. slow and dignified gait... She says she „is • Mrs. Blank. She , inspects various frocks, and at length chooses'one valued' at £6, and asks for it to be sent to the hotel.- Then she produces £3 in notes and a cheque which she says is for £5 ss. ' The assistant looks at'the cheque and sees that 'it is made out for £lO 10s. When , this fact; is pointed; out to Mrs. Blank she expresses pleasurable surprise. " I thought," she explains, "my husband had made it out for - only five guineas," Unsuspecting, the assistant returns the £3' in notes to the' customer and' hands her, £4 103 cash against the £lO 10s cheque. Both parties ■ are, satisfied until the firm finds out-'when they sent the frock to the, hotel that'-Mrs. does not'live there, and-that>her"cheque is returned marked "No account."' ; The two women- who -have tbeen working this trick are both described as being about 60 years of' s ' age, - but' the police know they are much younger. One of them took off a glove, and an observant assistant noticed that the hand was the carefully manicured - hand ' of a young woman. .