DUPED BY SWINDLER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19202, 19 June 1924, Page 8

DUPED BY SWINDLER.

SOCIETY LADY DECEIVED. A PLAUSIBLE SCOUNDREL. •' SQUIRE ” OF THE DISTRICT. Tlic spectacular career of an impudent ewiudlcr known as “Captain” Dane Jardxne Napier Dubois Phillips, lias resulted in a. sentence at Salisbury of nine months imprisoniuciit. This rcmarkab.c case was toliewed with the closest interest and attention by West Country tolk, as well as by society ladies in London and elsewhere, ihe allegations were that ho took advantage o£ the Hospitality of a lady whose residence was Hcywood House, a century ana ania!. 01 mansion delightfully situated near V* tilbury, Wills, and then delraudod her ol £6OO. His address was given as 64 Eeauiiiord street, Portland Square, London, JUt the police registered him as "ot no fixed abode.” , Xnc ladv who entertained Phillips is «M-r» Ada J. Chandler, well known in the Vale of the White Horse hunting circles, and she was apparently influenced by his story that ho had interests in Spanish railway concerns to the extent oi £IOO,OOO In *obe* fact, he was an undischarged bankrupt man who was dismissed from the armyaccount of passing worthless cheques. The scene in the Police Court was described by a London paper as alrnost incongruous. , In the dock was this dapper swindler, well groomed, smartly dressed, military appearance; in the well or the churt were a number of poorly-clad unemployed men of the labouring or farm hand type. JJut they- were deeply interested because tor fiomo weeks “Captain" Phillips had been the aristocrat of the district the “squire. CAPTIVATED BY FIXE STORIES. It was about Christmas time that Phillips was introduced into the Chandler houseuoid as a guest, and shortly afterwards he asked the lady of rhe house to finance him m certain transactions, stating that when completed he would give her £ao,ooo for her residence. Apparently Mrs was completely captivated by ins hue stories, whereas, as the proseculi.. counsel sta.ed, he had been living a hie of systematic fraud for a long period. Some idea his plausible manner may be obtained rom a summary of Mrs Chandler's own story, taken up irom the point at which Phillip* was introduced into her life by her son, who was wounded in the war. /The two men met in Brighton, and at Phillips' suggestion he went for a week-end to Westbury. Phillips said (hat he was to receive £BO,OOO at tire beginning of April from a Spanish concern, said Mrs Chandler, having a. deposit of £20,000, which would be followed by a directoiship at £2OOO a year. H® also offered Mrs Chandler’s son a pest in Madrid at £750 a year. “Wherever we went together 1 had to pay the expenses,” the lady continued. “We went to Bath in my car* and I had to pay for tea and seats at the theatre. I even had to buy a programme, because ho said he had no money in bis pocket.” Mils Chandler spoke of various sums given to Phillips by her, and said when he returned to Hcywood House irom Paris he received a telegram:—“Come Paris at once. Want you one day only. Returning Madrid Saturday*.—Cimcra.” When he read that he was very excited. He cried, laughed, sang,, danced, and said he would be independent of the whole world. “I HAVE TO SLEEP ON THE TABLE.” Asked if she could remember what she had given him, Mrs Chandler broke down, and between sobs said; “I can’t remember anything. My irome is gone. Xam Jett with nobody to own me. Ob, my beautiful home! It is too terrible. I have to sleep on my kitchen table. I had to pawn my jewellery to find him money to go to France. 1 lent it because X believed his story. The second time he went to France he returned by aenoplane because he missed the train. "Ho spoke of a divorce, and said I was to be named as the co-respondent, as I had money. Later be said that he had had tc sleep in his oar all night in Sf.vemake Forest because the petrol had run out, and that while he slept soneone stoic £ls from his wallet and the receipt which proved bis right to £100,003 in a Spanish railway.” The result of it all was that the bailiffs were put in at Xleywood House, and Phillips helped to carry the furniture out, even to the chairs they were sitting on. Mrs Chandler was deeply affected, and had to be supplied with water and eua de Cologne. Counsel: When Phillips came to your house, why were you introduced by youn son as his aunt? Witness: For private reasons. I had certain troubles of my own. You formed a groat affection for Phillips? —Oh, no. You wrote to him in terms of affection? — Only as a friend. Do you generally write' “Dearest” ana “much love" to a gentleman you have known only for a month?—Captain Phillips wrote in that sense. I returned it. "THAT IS MY HUSBAND A sensation was caused in court when a well-built, stout lady, expensively dressed in a black fur coat, entered the witness box. "Emily Louise Dubois Phillips is my name,” this witness said, “and that (pointing to the prisoner) is my husband. My address is 73 Cromwell road, West Kensington. 1 was married three years ago to-day, when I was a widow and had an hotel at Brighton. Phillips came to stay at my hotel, ana borrowed £2 within two hours. We were quickly engaged and then married. The dav after he borrowed £3O to go to Brussels. On his solicitor’s advice I sold the hotel for £5500, end only got £2400 of the amount. The rest went to pay his debts in Paris and in England. He got the money I had by saying ho was going into partnership in a silk business in Paris. He left me in Paris with £37 to pay for a fortnight’s holiday in a Paris hotel. “I thought he was a brilliant man before I married him,” the witness went on. “I thought it a pity to waste such capabilities. That” was why I gave him all I had. Now, he wouldn’t care if I had to sell matches in the street.” Mrs Lilian Gascoyne, a modiste, of Holborn, the owner of a dancing academy, eaid Phillips hired the academy from her to teach a young Russian lady to dance. He spoke to" her of “Spanish interests,” and asked her to lend him £SOOO, promising to repay her £25,000, but she told him she could not do it. PHILLIPS TELLS HIS STOP I . Phillips told his own story, which was that he ran a broker’s business in Paris before going to Hcywood House. He dealt in the liquidation of stocks, including timber, which lie bought from the owner, “the Stinnes of Austria,” through a firm in Vienna. Ho endeavoured to sell in Belgian and English markets, but failed through lack of capital. Then he acted practically as bailiff for Mrs Chandler. Ho admitted borrowing £SOO from Mrs Chandler, £2OO of which he spent paying her accounts, including their trip to Birmingham and Paris, where “we did thething well.’ She knew he was married, but there was a friendship between them. Superintendent Barrett said that Phillips was a temporary lieutenant in the army, but was called-upon to resign. His fingerprints had been sent to Paris, and it was ascertained ttiat he was arrested there in ]!)21 and sentenced to four months’ imprisonment for passing a worthless cheque. Another warrant recently issued against him was for obtaining credit while an nndisi charged bankrupt.