RUSSIAN "PRINCE"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21450, 25 March 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

RUSSIAN "PRINCE"

ARREST IN LONDON DEPORTATION RECOMMENDED A naval engineer who claimed to be a Russian prince was recommended for deportation by Mr. Fry at Bow Street Police Court, London, recently. He was described as Stig Erikson Stenfelt, alias Dimitri Troubeskoy, 32, of uncertain nationality, of Cambridge Terrace. Paddington, and was charged on remand with having failed as an alien to register a change of address. Detective-sergeant Fury said that the accused claimed that lie was -Prince Dimitri Troubeskoy, and it was difficult to prove that he was not. For some time he had been associating with a woman whose father was a wealthy man of title, and lie had been trying to obtain money from her family. He had also associated with a German woman, who had now left the country, but she was still sending him money. Quite recently he made the acquaintance of a lady's maid and took her out to dinner " and so forth," and obtained from her some details about her employer. On the Thursday before his arrest the maid left her service and the accused telephoned to her mistress and insisted upon an appointment. She met him at the Piccadilly Hotel on the day he was arrested. His explanation was that he wanted to urge the mistress to take the girl hack, but the girl said that she did not wish to return.

Mr. Fry: Do you think he wished to blackmail her ? Sergeant Fury: There is not much doubt about that. The officer added that in 1931 a Swede named Stenfelt handed the accused his passport at Stockholm for the purpose of obtaining a Russian visa. The accused had offered to employ him as his manager in Leningrad. The passport was not returned, but was used by the accused to enter England." He had given that name for the purpose of obtaining furniture on hire purchase, and it was desired by tho authorities that he should be deported. Accused: It is impossible. I am Prince Dimitri Troubeskoy and a royalist. I hate the Soviet. I kill myself if you bring me to Russia. Sergeant Fury mentioned that there were several unpaid hotel bills. Some had been met by various women. The magistrate sentenced the accused to one- month's imprisonment and recommended him for deportation. I hope you will be sent out of the country somehow," he said.