IMPERSONATING A SERGEANT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16546, 20 November 1915, Page 8

IMPERSONATING A SERGEANT

ANOTHER WOMAN'S HUSBAND. THREE YEARS' IMPRISONMENT. Pres# Association —By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, November 18. The "pseudo Sergeant Dandy was to-day sentenced to three years' imprisonmnent. After a hearing during which there were ono or two dramatic interludes the mail charged under the Army Act with falsely representing himself to bo Sergeant Herbert Dandy, of the Manchester Regiment, was, at Manchester, committed for trial. Sergeant Herbert Dandy,' whose wifo and family live at West Gorton, Manchester, was reported missing from h ; s regiment in the Dardanelles after an engagement on July 15. Three weeks later, on tho day after the casualty list was published, tihe prisoner, it was alleged, visited Mrs Dandy and claimed to be her husband. It was not until he had been in tho house for a week that Mrs Dandy bogan to doubt whether the man was her husband. The prisoner was now further charged with an offence against Mrs Dandy by personating her husband. Police-inspector Thomas said he found the prisoner at Exchange station, Manchester, with Mrs Dandy, and questioned him. Asked about tho date of his marriage, he said he was married at Latchford Church in tho month of August, about 10 years ago. Tho day of tho wedd'iig was a Wednesday. He also very accurately described people who were present. Tho prisoner was afterwards confronted with a detachment of men of Sergeant Dandy's battalion, but he did not know them, and the soldiers said definitely that he was notSergeant Dandy. Mrs Dandy gave evidence of the accused's arrival and claims, which imposed on her and her relatives to such an extent that she lived with him for a week as man and wife. Ada Hall, wife of the accused, said his real name' was George Parkin Hall, and, turning to Mrs Dandy, she said: " It's a caution people don't know their own husbands. You are as bad as he is. I should know my own husband in a hundred."