YOUNG WOMAN'S FRAUD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21784, 25 October 1932, Page 5

YOUNG WOMAN'S FRAUD

DOCTORS BECOME VICTIMS POSING AS A HEIRESS. Many doctors in Britain have bscn interested in the exposure in a Londrji Court of a young woman's career of fraua. Prosecuting counsel declared that the police regarded her as the most persistent begging-letter writer in their records and doctors were invariably her victims. The woman began a career of calculated deception in her early teens, and until the pretence was discovered posed as an heiress in expectation of a large sum of monev from abroad. Ignoring the leniency extended to her on nrevious occasions, she cried bitterly when sentenced to a long term of imprisonment. Dark-haired and attractive, but apparently apprehensive of the punishment awaiting her, Jean Atherton, aged 27, canvasser, pleaded guilty before Mr Cecil Whiteley, K.C., to oDtaining two sums ot £3 from two doctors by false pretences. According to prosecuting counsel, Atherton fastened on the , medical profession, and traded on its generosity, as doctors were misled into believing thev were helping a brother in distress. Her method was to go into a public library and choose the names of two doctors, one of whom was in the colonies. She would then communicate with the other in England, purporting to be the step-daughter of the one in the colonies, and ask for financial assistance, as her step-father was ill. If successful, accused sent another begging letter, requesting a further advance In two instances she represented, herself as the step-daughter of doctors in New Zealand and South Africa. Atherton, counsel explained, said she wished nine other similar cases to be taken into consideration.

SAMPLES OF THE. LETTERS. Reading what he described as a typical letter, counsel quoted the following Dear Sir,—l do hope you will pardon me writing to you, but I do so at my father's request, as, owing to unforeseen circumstances, namely, the sudden death in Capetown of my step-father's brother and trustee, we find ourselves temporarily stranded here without any money at all, aud unable to pay our bill for our rooms. So my step-father wondered if you could possibly, for old times' sake, help us by lending him £3 until April 11. . • • It is quite dreadful to be stranded without any monev at all in a strange place, with two invalids, and you will understand it is so necessary, in my father's present state of health, for all worries to be kept from him if possible, and the landlady is so unpleasant about her rent. . /. . , I am really desperate with worry, tor, although lam 20,1 feel so hopeless against this dreadful trouble. . . . Could you, if it is not troubling you too much, reply by return, as it is so urgent? Please, for the love of God, do help- us! Detective Sergeant Allen stated that Atherton was born at Clapham, London, in 1905, and later went to a convent school at Newquay, Cornwall. She left school at the age of 10. At one time her father was a student at St. Thomas Hospital, but failed to qualify. In 1923 Atherton was bound over at Falmouth, and ordered to refund £lO which she had obtained by fraud. After that she worked as a governess for some time, and in October, 1924, she was charged with her father at Torquay with false pretences. She was sentenced to 14 days' imprisonment with hard labour, and her father received six weeks' imprisonment. • „ , ,_ In May, 1925. continued Sergeant Allen, Atherton was charged with her mother at Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, with larceny as bailees of two coats. The mother was sent to a mental hospital, and the daughter was bound over for 12 months. BEGGING COMMENCED.

Atherton went to Cardiff and began to write begging letters, but the police were unable to induce any person to prosecute, as her victims wore doctors who resided a considerable distance from the city* ~ r,, , In November, 1925, accused's father's mother died and left her father £250, but owing to his wayward habits the terms of the will were that he received £5 per month. His daughter was also left £2OO, and this sura was paid to her in full in 1927. " •" While at Cardiff. Atherton tried to obtain £5 from the V.A.D. Services Committee of the United Services Fund by false pretences. In 1928 she was sentenced to 21 days' imprisonment at Cardiff for false pretences, and in 1929, at Portsmouth, she got six months on a similar charge. She returned to Cardiff in January, 1930, and took her father and mother out of the Poor Law institution. Then she commenced to broadcast begging letters until things got too hot for her. When she left, her landlady's sheets and blankets also disappeared. Subsequently she sent out similar appeals from Shepherd's Bush, and at Cardiff, after being arrested on a warrant in March, 1930, she was bound over on condition that she, went into the Convent of the Good Shepherd at Ford, Liverpool, for 12 months.

EIGHTEEN MONTHS IN PRISON. After leaving Liverpool accused took a position with a Bootle woman, who befriended her. Having suggested that her parents had died at Barnstable leaving her a large fortune, Atherton went away, and the woman missed money and clothing. In July, 1931, Atherton, with her father and mother, arrived at Yeovil, having apparently been on the tramp all day. The mother went into an institution, and later the father and daughter left their lodgings owing £2. While at Yeovil, Atherton again sent out begging letters. " Atherton," concluded the officer, " is known to the Charity Organisation Society and the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund as the most, persistent begging-letter writer in the country. When arrested she had in her possession the names and addresses of doctors in Yorkshire, Blackpool, Penzance, Colchester, St. Leonards-on-Sea, Isle of Man, Manchester, and Berkshire."

Mr Whiteley, remarking that Atherton seemed determined to live a life of crime, sentenced her to 18 months' imprisonment. She was led from the dock weeping bitterly.