"IN A BIG WAY"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23139, 10 September 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

"IN A BIG WAY"

Car Thief was a At Marketing IF somebody stole a car belonging to Britain's Home Secretary and sold it to a leading Assize Court Judge, thereafter purloining Mr. C. B. Cochran s car , and driving off in it under his astonished gaze, the matter would be of more than passing interest m of this kind was done in France by a M. Charles Giselet, known to his intimates as Charles the Bold" (after Charles 11. of France), who has just been sent to prison for five years.

aMONG countless exploits in a A highly successful life of crime, jL\ Giselet once stole a car belonging to the world-famous lawyer, M. Campinchi, who happened at that moment to be Minister of Justice. The thief sold the car shortly afterwards to M. Narrain, President of the Seine Assizes Court, and followed this up by stealing M. Medrano's car (M. Medrano is the Bertram Mills of France) from the very doors of the Cirque Medrano in Paris, with the owner looking on positively hypnotised by is check* These, however, were mere incidents for Charles and so far as the legal dignitaries were concerned, their connection with his business was quite fortuitous. "First Care"

One employs the word business advisedly, because Charles regarded his special method of making a living as a very serious business indeed anc developed it on a big scale. As he explained to the Court— "anybody can steal a car, but getting a satisfactory price for it afterwards is another matter. My first care was, therefore, to build up a proper sales organisation. This he certainly did, for he would have nothing to do with the "fence" or receiver and always sold in the open market, obtaining full value. It should be mentioned here that second-hand ears fetch very much higher prices in France than in England, and Charles knew with some exactitude what he could get for any car when stealing it. His sales organisation, although extensive, needed quite a small staff

and the staff went to prison with him. A specialist in everything, he stole oars of one make only and always the latest models de luxe. Arrangements for disposal included a printing machine and quite a "drawing office" for the production of forged cards and police certificates and a garage-workshop where not only number plates but engine numbers were changed with lightning rapidity. "Official on Leave"

While the stealing and disguising of cars took place in Paris, sales were invariably made in the provinces, and for this purpose Giselet rented furnished fiats in Marseilles, Lyons, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Lille and Toulouse. In each of these cities he would become a Colonial official on leave, re-

called to Indo-China and obliged to sell his car at once.

"When Giselet sold a car to a High Court Judge, ho had no idea of client's identity until the moment camo for signing transfer papers. The Assize Court President wrote down his name and "occupation"! Whereupon Charles slapped his own thigh and emitted the French equivalent of "Well, I'm jig. gored," nearly choking with laughter. A little outburst which, as the Judge remarked in Court at the prosecution, surprised him at the time.