BIRKBECK BANK ROBBERY

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1508, 24 January 1901, Page 29

BIRKBECK BANK ROBBERY

Richard Sullivan, aged 38, bookmaker, pleaded “Guilty,” on Dec. 8, Clerkenwell sessions, to a robbery at the B;rkbeck Bank on Nov. 19.—Mr L. Kersnaw, who prosecuted, said the prisoner confessed to stealing £55 in notes belonging to Hannah Yelland. She was at t'he cashier’s desk in the bank to pay in £7O, £55 of which was in notes, when, the prisoner, wearing a silk hat, apologised for addressing her, but excused himself on the ground that her gloves had fallen to the floor. Mrs Yelland. stooped to pick them up, and, examining them, found they were not hers, and at the same time discovered that., although she had kept her hand on the pass-book all the time, the notes had been most expertly abstracted. A hue and cry was raised after the prisoner, who quickly disappeared from the bank, dodged through a court opposite, and made his way through several small passages in Chancery lane, and eventually got into the Strand, where, there being, as usual, a block in the traffic, he dodged round several vehicles, clambered on to an omnibus, when die thought he had eluded has pursuers', and was ultimately taken into custody by a constable. During the hot chase Sullivan managed to get rid of the notes, despite the fact that he was not lost sight of for a second, offered a bribe of £4 and a drink toi his most persistent follower, a messenger named William Smith, and finding that he refused ever} 7 - thing, he made several attempts to get away by striking at the young fellow. A second witness who endeavoured to hold the runaway was knocked down into the roadway. It was thought that the absence of the notes was to be accounted for by the suggestion that the daring thief was acting with other people waiting in the vicinity of the bank to. receive any booty.—A detective proved that in April, 1890, Sullivan was sentenced to 18 months’ hard labour at the Old Bailey for having with others, attempted to rob a bank clerk. Prisoner, said to be an American, was described as being connected with a very smart- set of American, Continental and English thieves, •who lived solely by robberies.— Detective-Sergeant A. Bell, E division, said that on Nov. 19, 1896, the prisoner was convicted at Paris of stealing jewellery, and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. How long he had been m England is not known, but he had 1 mixed with clever criminals, who operated in several countries. Many similar roooerles to the present had been reported to the police.—Mr McConnell sentenced the prisoner to four years’ penal servitude. —The witness Smith was commended, and awarded 10s besides his expenses.