HOTEL THIEF’S EXPLOITS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18447, 7 January 1922, Page 8

HOTEL THIEF’S EXPLOITS

WATCH,ON. INTENDED .YIOTniS:'

A story that recalled the exploite of “ Raffles ’’ Was told at the London. Sessions recently, when Reginald Wynne, 25, a smartly dressed man wearing- horn-rimmed glasses, pleaded' guilty to ingenious thefts frdto .hotels in London and the' provinces, and was sentenced to four yeare’ penal servitude. Mr Frederick Levy, who prosecuted, said that in the first ease, in which fun worth £I2OO were . stolen, Mira Abell, of Rugby. Mansions,- West Kensington.. received a mes-. sage asking her-to., go to the- Savoy Hotel, and on her return founds that her hire had ‘disappeared. “ Almost as soon as Mrs, Abell had gone out,” said Mir Levy, “two men—one of them the prisoner—oalled'et her house- 'They told the* maid they had an- appointment with her mistress. and would await - her return. They went into the dining-room and ordered the servant to ’ prepare teaAfter they had taken this one of the men" went, as he said, to telephone to Mrs Abell at the Savoy.. While this man kept the maid in''oonversatioh'■ his confederate out. the telephone wire«. '' '' ; The ' ttdnlf wmtain-' ing the furs was removed without the knowledge of . any of the servants. On the next day dome of the stolen furs were pawned in Liverpool.” ■ The next ease related to jewels' wprth £516 stolen from'the Embassy Hotel, Bayswater. Wynne' Was staying at the hotel' and noticed that a .Miss Isobel M‘Rae possessed some costly rings. One morning she appeared without thjam. While the meal proceeded Wynne went' to her room and stole her rings, which she bad left in the bureau., t Within half an hour—probably whilh Miss M'Rae was yet at the 'table—the jewellery had been sold at Batton Garden. 1 ' The last charge concerned the theft ol £2500 worth, of jewels from a room at the, Cadogan Hotel, Sloane street, S.W., belonging to a Mrs Davis. A careful ’ watch was kept, said Mr Levy, on her movements for a considerable time before the actual robbery. Her room waa. entered by means of a master key -which . was kept in the lift for the convenience of residents. _ Wynne was arrested while in the “silver” ring at Alexandra Park racecourse. Jewellery worth hundreds of pounds was found on him. > Detective Sergeant Ma-t-lrbe.™ said Wynne had stayed.at fashionable hotels in Manchester, Blackpool, Bognor, Folkstone, Buxton, and Torquay, and in each case valuables were missed.