FANCIFUL TALES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23106, 4 February 1937, Page 7

FANCIFUL TALES

SWEETHEART ROBBED How an ex-convict, who pretended to be a decorated ex-army officer, an eminent musician, and the son of a former Lord Mayor of Birmingham, courted a girl of 18 and robbed her of her savings, was told at Liverpool when, in the dock, the culprit declared his regret for robbing his young sweetheart. The man, Frederick George Mellor. aged 45, unemployed motor driver, of Great George place, Liverpool, was sentenced to three months' hard labour for stealing, as bailee, £2 belonging to Miss Winifred Lee, clerk, of Amsdale, Southport. " This is a most mean and despicable offence," declared Mr W. Culshaw, prosecuting. "Mellor has robbed this girl while keeping company with her. " He visited her home and told the girl and her father fanciful tales which have taken them in completely. " He pretended he was an ex-captain of the army and had been decorated with the Military Cross and the Belgian Croix de Guerre. He also represented he was an eminent organist and a musical director who had appointments at theatres in London, Manchester and Leeds. He declared he held the degrees of B.A. (Oxon), Mus.Bac. (Oxon), L.R.A.M.. A.R.C.0., A.R.C.M., and A,C.V. "To give colour to his false representations," went on Mr Culshaw, "Mellor once produced the proof of a poster which announced him as an eminent organist who was giving a recital at York Minster. He gave an annual recital at the minster, he said, and received a fee of £SO.

" Mellor told the girl and her parents that his father had been twice Lord Mayor of Birmingham, and was a justice of the peace," declared Mr Culshaw. "He represented he had received a large sum of money through his father's will, and that he had a big account in a Liverpool bank. "Mellor and the girl kept company for 18 months, and in August of last year the girl opened a bank account. She brought away a home safe, which she asked him to keep for her. Each week out of her earnings she gave him something to put in the safe, the amount varying from 6d to ss. These* amounts Mellor entered in a diary. "Recently, the girl received a letter from Mellor, saying he had taken some money out of her safe, and when she asked him why he had done so, he replied, 'I spent more than I should in the past week.' He made no reply when she asked him why he had not gone to his own bank." MONEY GONE Miss Lee, continued Mr Culshaw, the following day went with her father to Mellor's lodgings, where he produced the home safe and said, " I have never put any money in it." When asked where the £SO was that he obtained for the organ recital at York, he replied: " I have never played in York Minster in my life. Everything I have told you about being a musical director and everything-else is all lies." Mellor handed to the clerk of the court a statement addressed to the magistrates, which said: — " The whole of the money was spent on Miss Lee, who had very expensive tastes. She always desired to be taken to cafes and places. I do not excuse myself, but having got entangled I simply had to keep up the pretence. " If you can see your way to pass a nominal sentence and bind me over I will repay the money in instalments. Give me another chance, please." Mellor, it was stated, had been 17 times convicted, and had received many sentences for false pretences and stealing jewellery, having served one term of penal servitude. Detective Sergeant Mattinson said the girl and her father had believed everything Mellor had told them. It was a great surprise to them to find that he was an ex-convict on public assistance. Mellor had repeatedly posed as some important personage, and had become associated with pepple of good social standing whom he completely deceived.