A DETECTIVE’S CHASE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19046, 17 December 1923, Page 3

A DETECTIVE’S CHASE.

AN AUSTRALIAN IN AMERICA. CAUGHT IN WASHINGTON. (Peb Uritsu Pbrss Association.) WELLINGTON, December 15. The departure ot the Tahiti for Sydney yesterday marked the beginning of the final chapter m the story of the longest chase in Australian criminal annals. About eight months, ago the secretary of a largo concern in New South Wales disappeared, and no trace could be found of him or of a large sum of money. After ransacking Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania, Detoctiro-sergea-nt Edwards, of the New South Wales Criminal Investigation Department, received information which led him to visit the United States, and, following up a clue obtained in Pittsburg, he went to Washington, where the wanted man was run to earth. His name is William Benjamin; he is married, and his age is 54. He was extradited from America on a charge of forgery and uttering and larceny as clerk, the amounts involved aggregating £6OOO. Detective-sergeant Edwards travelled over 7000 miles through the United States during this man hunt. The accused is a very well educated man, and np till about nine months ago was secretary for a big farming and grazing concern in Sydney—Robinson and Vincent, Ltd. Defalcations, understood to amount of about £20,000, were discovered in the firm’s money, and Benjamin at this stage disappeared.