BLUFF AND FRAUD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19946, 13 November 1926, Page 14

BLUFF AND FRAUD

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER.

SENTENCES OF IMPRISONMENT.

LONDON. November 1. An astonishing story of bluff and fraud carried on in many countries is behind the sentences nassed on Mrs M'Cormick, aged 40, and her beautiful adopted daughter Cynthia, aged 20. They were sente respectively, to eight months and four months’ imprisonment for defrauding Scottish tradesmen (says the London Evening News). . The M'Cor licks are Americans, and they were known to the police under 21 aliases. They claimed to hold high social position stayed at the best hotels, and left behind them a trail of unpaid bills on the Continent and in Britain. Cynthia recently posed as the fiancee of the nephew of the Duke of Devonshire for the purpose of carrying out her frauds. She also used her allurements to entrap rich men into proposals of marriage and then forced them to pay heavily to avoid threatened breach of promise actions. A Shanghai man parted with several thousand dollars in such an emergency. The M'Cormicks visited India, where a ruling prince offered Cynthia marriage, promising to pay her mother a large sum. They were arrested in the lounge of a hotel, where they were waiting for a wealthy man who had been selected as the next victim.