SERIES OF FRAUDS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21805, 21 May 1934, Page 8

SERIES OF FRAUDS

SEVERAL FIRMS DUPED SUPPLIERS OF LIQUOR OFFENDER'S PLAUSIBLE TALE A series of frauds practised upon vine and spirit merchants in Auckland, and involving goods of a considerable value, was reported on Saturday. At least four firms are stated to have been victimised, the losses consisting of cases of whisky valued at nearly £l2O and cigarettes worth about £SO. An ingenious system was followed by the offender, who is thought to have been a young man, and the success he gained illustrated the plausible way in which he approached the victims. The method employed was to communicate ■nith a firm by telephone and to announce that he was the nephew of a well-known hotelkeeper in a North Auckland town. "Jack" was the familiar term used in mentioning the hotelkeeper, and no suspicion was caused, because suppliers of liquors are ordinarily well acquainted with their customers. The young man would inform a firm that "Jack" wanted three cases of beer and three cases of whisky, to use the story given in three of the instances of fraud, and he would ask that the beer should be sent to the wharf for shipment to "the North. The young man would then state that he was going North by motor-car, a:ad he would"bo able to take the whisky without in* convenience, and, as what appeared to be an afterthought, he would say that "Jack" would want 40,000 cigarettes as well, because supplies were short. One wine and spirit merchant actually met the perpetrator, but he has not been able to supply a detailed description of the man. No suspicion on the part of the merchant was aroused, and the bogus nephew of the hotelkeeper had no difficulty in collecting three cases of whisky and the cigarettes. The cases of beer left at the wharf were ignored, and this was the procedure adopted in the other instances, the offender taking as little risk of detection as possible. In one instance, the whisky and the cigarettes were left at a garage for him to collect, and in another; case lie obtained the supplies at a city hotel. All the merchants have recoveied the beer.

Nothing was suspected until the North Auckland hotelkceper received accounts for whisky and cigarettes ho had not ordered. He lost no time in complaining to the merchants concerned, and it was then that they became aware of being duped.