COUNTERFEIT MONEY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21054, 17 June 1930, Page 13

COUNTERFEIT MONEY.

NOTES PRINTED IN GAOL. . ..There lias been released recently from Parkhtifst Prison, Tale, of -.Wight,- where he' -had beenundergoing a second sen!tenc&,of seven yearsVpenal Servitude, one of thcL'cl'evefest note, folrgera ever known to Scotland Yard. ■ The. man dnce made the extraordinary assertion that when he was previously under detention at 'Camp Hill—having been ordered seven.years’ penal servitude for uttering forged currency notes in 191 S

—he was set to learn Tiow 'to engrave and provided with books on the subject It .is certainly correct that: in the craft he developed, a high degree of skill, and that when : - he. - fegai Ued- his ■ -.liberty he reverted ‘to his old; mode >of life.! Both .at. Parkhurst.and' 1 at Gamp Hill' he was allowed to do . small' jobs, engraving names,on brasses, one of his tasks being to put inscriptions on a war memorial. Now the man, Ernest Everett, who is 56, has made the'astonishing statement that while at Camp- Hill he, with the assistance of a warder.- since dead, contrived to fabricate more than 600 £1 Treasury notes. All of these, Everett says, were smuggled out of his cell, which, owing to'the work -he was engaged, do,.was, with the permission of the 'authorities, converted into a sort of workshop.

His warder friend, says Everett, provided .him! with the right sort of photographic lens, and with the aid of a selfmade box camera he was able to make the forged plates from a photograph of a £1 note—three colour plates for the front of the note, one for the back, and one for the watermark. A good class paper, also furnished by the warder, was specially and scientifically treated with chemicals.

On bis release, Everett adds,; he expected to receive £IOO from tile warder; He got £75 and a promise of £25, which was, never fulfilled. Regaining his. liberty in June, T 923, Everett returned to London, and .set up in business as an electroplater and engraver. Later, he adver tised for apprentices to the trade of elec-tro-plating and engraving, and obtained premiums of from £lO to £25.

Eventually.-Everett-was run to earth at Gravesend, and at the police station ho threw on the table a bundle, which was found to contain 450 forged Treasury notes. Notes exactly similar had beep cashed in Leeds, Doncaster, Wakefield, the Isle of Wight, Southampton, Gravesend, Chatham, Woolwich, Windsor, 'Kingston, and many London boroughs. " Following Everett’s arrest. Chief , Detective Inspector Collins, of Scotland Yard, searched his premises in London and discovered a plate the size of a £1 note, and pieces of wax bearing the letters ONE POU and ND, and it was suggested that the wax was used to simulate a watermark on the notes. When he appeared at. Maidstone Assizes, Everett was sent back into penal servitude for seven years, the judge remarking that “ the only time society is safe -from you is when you are within Orison walla.”