"SLICK ALEC"

NZ Truth, Issue 1062, 1 April 1926, Page 5

"SLICK ALEC"

Shopkeepers Beware! LARKIN'S WHLLZL (From "Truth's" Special Auckland Rep.) Shopkeepers should beware of the smooth-tongued young man who comes into their store to make a minor purchase if his methods take the following lines. Enter "Alec"; he puts down a nole ill payment for a soft drink or a packet of cigarettes. In return he is handed a quantity o£ silver change. . ' / y "Alec" suddenly remembers 1 that he already has too much loose change and he puts the silver back on the counter while he feels for the- odd : money to settle for his purchase and asks for the note back. It is handed to him, and he then pushes the silver and a half-note to the unwary shopkeeper with the request that he may be given a £1 note m exchange. ; The £1 note is handed him by a. now slightly confused shopkeeper, for. which he pushes over the silver and half-note m exchange. He then leaves the shop; later, possibly, the shopkeeper or his assistant wakes up to find that he has been diddled for ten bob. This was the little wheeze that Arthur Colin Larkin put over three individuals m the, course of a few days last month. • Wh on. arrested by Detec.tivo O'Sullivan he was not able to deny the soft impeachment. \ ' . As -he stood m the dock at the Magistrate's Court before S.M. Poynton he. looked a cut above such a mean .form of thef t : — tall, neatly dressed, an-3 intelligent.. : Mr. McLiver. did his. best. for Larkin. the "Alec" m the case, by stating that it; was the first ,time he had attempted anything of the kind. His misfortune was that he had recently been associated with; a man who had got a month for a " similar offence. "They think they are very clever to do such a thing — but they're not," the Bench observed. /. In further extenuation counsel pleaded that Larkin had been a good son, his fall being due to meeting an expert m this line of "easy. money" livelihood. On- the other hand, it came to light that the accused was not a novice at playing crookedVand had stood m the dock before^ ? •Larkin was presented with two months' peace and/ quietness — one each on two of the' charges, to be cumulative; on the other he was convicted and discharged. . • ... :-•■ .■-,'.',