PLAYWRIGHT SENT TO GAOL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19349, 9 December 1924, Page 12

PLAYWRIGHT SENT TO GAOL.

LECHMERE WORRALL AND THE CABMEN. A NEW ZEALANDER’S COMPLAINT. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, October 21. Lechmere Worrall, the author of “The Man Who Stayed at Home” and many other plays, has been sentenced to 14 days’ imprisonment on a charge of hiring a taxi cab knowing he could not pay the fare, and with intent to avoid payment. Quite a- number of such cases are being brought against him, and a Now Zealand Indy, Mrs Kate Long (formerly of Wellington) also has a complaint against the playwright. She has applied for a summons against him for the unlawful detention of a Chinese mandarin’s costume valued at £ls. She said she left the costume with Mr Worrall for an hour, and it had not been returned. When she asked him about the costume bo said be remembered nothing about it. The summons was granted. Mr Edmund O’Connor prosecuted for the Motor Cab Trade Protection Society. He said the offence, commonly referred to as “bilking,” was on the increase in London at the present time to an alarming extent. “I am going to put the case against Mr Worrall.” Mr O’Connor said to the magistrate. “as that of an audacious, persistent bilker. After you have heard the evidence I am convinced that you will come to the conclusion that. I have not overstated his true character.” The position of the cabman, so far as this case was concerned, he said, was an extremely serious one. At the end of the day a journeyman driver gave 75 per cent, of the takings to the employer —keeping 25 per cent, to himself. If a driver was a victim of “bilking” he was nevertheless liable for 75 per cent, of the amount indicated on the clock. BANK BALANCE OF sd.

The facts in this case were that at 9.30 a.m. Mr Worrall engaged the driver, and told him to go to a studio in Kensington, and eventually to Twickenham, whore a lady was picked up. Mr Worrall arranged with the cabman to pay him £3, and when he discharged him, about 9.5 U p.m., he handed him a cheque on a hank. That cheque, on presentation, was dishonoured. Mr Worrell’s balance in the bank to-day was 6d.

Another case was brought against Worrall •at another court. A taxi driver said that on September 11 Worrall engaged his cab and was driven round the West End and then to Everyman Theatre. From there ho was again driven round the West End and back to the theatre. The cab was practically engaged by him the whole day. In dismissing him Worrall gave him an order on a hank for £5. It was not honoured. Lechmere Worrall, who was born at Bristol 50 years ago was educated at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and studied medicine in London. He has written a great number of plays. For his best-known work, “The Man Who Stayed at Home,” a thrilling spy drama written in collaboration with Mr J. E. H. Terry, he is stated to have got £20,000.