OLD SWINDLE AGAIN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21314, 15 October 1932, Page 12 (Supplement)

OLD SWINDLE AGAIN

" SPANISH PRISONER " TRICK ENGLISH FARMER LOSES £IOO A farmer living near Hastings, England, who has fallen a victim to the "Spanish prisoner" swindle, relates how he discussed the possibility of fraud and was convinced the letters he had received were genuine. He parted with £IOO in banknotes. "I have been receiving letters since August 3," he said, "from a man signing himself Matias, claiming to be the widower of a relative of mine and a political prisoner at Valencia. He asked me to look after his 12-year-old daughter, and promised me one-third of a fortune of £75,000 he had secreted in banknotes in a secret place in his trunk. The other £50,000 was to be settled on the daughter, and I was to adopt her. "The baggage was held by the gaol authorities as security for expenses, and I was asked to send the money in banknotes to pay the expenses. There was also some correspondence purporting to come from the prison chaplain, and eventually I received a death certificate showing that the 'prisoner' had died. I then sent the money to the chaplain, Juan Badia, for the release of the baggage—as I imagined. "The day before sending the money I discussed with my brother-in-law the possibility of it being a fraud, but* we both agreed the story must be genuine. The day after my brother-in-law came to me with an old newspaper describing how another Sussex farmer had been swindled by this same Juan Badia."