MAIL BAG ROBBERY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20283, 16 December 1927, Page 13

MAIL BAG ROBBERY.

CHARGE AGAINST EXTRADITED NEW ZEALANDER. JOSEPH FOSTER BEFORE THE MAGISTRATE. (Fkom Ooh Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 2. Joseph Foster, who was extradited from New Zealand, appeared on remand last Friday, at the Marylebone Police Court, to answer the charge of being concerned with stealing a mail bag containing £IO.OOO on February 2. Foster’s head and left hand were heavily bandaged. He explained that he had an abscess on his head. The magistrate, Mr Bingley, allowed him to sit down during the bearing of evidence. Mr Percival Clarke, for the prosecution, said that Foster was charged with stealing and receiving part of the receipts of a mail bag robbery amounting to' £lO 000. “He is charged with being a party to the theft and with receiving proceeds to the extent of £IOOO in Treasury notes. On February 2 some cashiers at Lloyd’s Bank in Cardiff made up .our packets of Treasury notes, each containing £2500. These were prepared for tne post and addressed to Lloyds Bank head office in London, through a box office, at the London G.P.0., where they would have been collected. The packets were taken to the G.P.0., Cardin, and enclosed in the registered letter bag, which was due to leave Cardiff at 6.30 in the evening for Paddington At bags left for the Cardiff railway station at 6.20 they 'arrived at the station, at 6.31 they were placed in the guards van, and at 6.41 the train left for 1 addmgton. The guard’s van was at the rear ot tne, coachf When the train reached Paddington at 9.40 a G.P.O. porter went to get the bags out of the van and found that the pink labelled bag in which were tha packets was missing. TREATED THE GUARD. “The robbery was committed at some point during the journey. - Somewhere be-, tween Newport and London the guard leit hia van to look after some Swindon luggage in the centre of the train. As he walked down the corridor he noticed two men in a third-class compartment at the end of the coach. One of them wanted a drink, and he asked the guard U he could get it for him. The guard replied that he did not think he could, and the man said, ‘I only want some soda-water,; because I have the whisky here, ine guard went away, and returned afterwards with the soda water, and they, in turn' consumed part of the soda water and the whisky. The guard thus had a good chance to see the man. While the guard, was away I suggest that an entrance was made to his van and the bag stolen. At Swindon the guard saw the man coming from the refreshment room. He said, I have had a drink. Come and have one. The guard went with him, and they had a drink together. At Reading the guard left the train, and the passenger went on to London. Between 11 and 12 the same night Foster arrived at an hotel in Bloomsbury and gave his name as dThomas, 17 Stepney street, Sheffield. He had, however, stayed in the hotel before under the name of D. Thomas, with a. Swindon address. OPENED AN ACCOUNT. “At the King’s Cross branch of Barclay’s Bank next morning he said that he wanted to open an account. There he appeared, uot as Thomas or Foster, but as William Roberts, a commission agent, of 55 Great Charles street, Bloomsbury. He gave two references to open an account with £IOOO. It would have been dangerous to open an account with 1000 Treasury notes, and Foster came along with Bank of England notes. We say ne came by them in this way. He met a Mr Chandler, one of his references, at a bookmakers’ club, and told him he had been having a good time at point-to-point races, and produced a number of Bank of England notes, which were dirty, and asked Mr Chandler to exchange them for clean ones. There were about 300 or 400, which Chandler exchanged. After that Foster produced 500 or 600 Treasury notes, and asked Chandler to exchange them for Bank of England notes, and this was done. Where Foster obtained the other Bank of England notes, which he exchanged with Chandler, I am unable to say." WIFE AND CHILD ON THE RATES. After explaining how some of the notes were traced back to Chandler, Mr Clarke said: “Foster left his wife and child at Merthyr Tydfil, where he formerly lived, to be supported by the union. His liability to the guardians increased until he was owing £2O. Up to the day before the robbery he was seen in the neighbourhood, . and he was obviously hard up. After he had opened a banking account he said that he had given a wrong address, altered it, and then drew out £IOO. He went to a firm of shipping agents in the Strand and booked pasages for his wife, himself, and child for New Zealand in the name of J. Foster. Gladys street, Merthyr Tvdfil. He paid £SO as deposit money. Next he returned to Merthyr, and said that a relation had died in Australia and left him money. He would be obliged to go there to claim it. The guardians warrant officer was interested in the man because of the money he owed for his wife and child, and obesrved that he appeared to be much better dressed than formerly. Eventually Foster gave him £5 towards the payment of arrears." MONEY TRANSFERRED TO NEW ZEALAND. On March 15 Foster withdrew the balance from the bank. £849 15s 10s. • Ho gave the shipping agent in the Strand £772, £72 of which was the balance of his passage money, and £7OO was for transference to Auckland, New Zealand, On March 17 ho left for New Zealand with his family. Information was obtained in this country which made it fairly clear that he was one of the men who was travelling m the train. An application was made under the Fugitive Offenders’ Act. He arrived at Southampton on October 23. He appeared in court on October 25, and was remanded until this day. ... Post Office Detective Peacock said that that morning Foster had been put up with seven other tpen for identification, and had been picked out by witnesses. Formal evidence was given by the Cardiff Bank officials and the railway officials. The cashiers who made up tha parcels of notes said that the notes were old, and there was no means of identifying them* Mr Edmund O’Connor (for defendant) cross-examining, asked whether the packages were fairly bulky and it any one had them about his person they would make his clothes stick out. witnesses agreed that they would. . Ernest James Walters, acting head postman at Cardiff, gave evidence of having put the mail bag in the van along with about 20 others. He shut the sliding door of fhe van and saw the tram leave the station. . Mr O’Connor: Did you think anyone waa concealed in the van when you closed it? —No, sir. A 9st man could conceal himself in a 4ft mail bag?—l don’t agree. Mr Clarke: Was ihcrc. in fact, a man in any ol the hugs you put into the van—.' No. sir. 1-Vtcv was remanded in custody until a week later.