FALSE PRETENCES CHARGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23690, 23 December 1938, Page 10

FALSE PRETENCES CHARGE

SEQUEL TO MISSING JEWELS £2OOO THEFT MAN COMMITTED FOR TRIAL (From Our Own Correspondent' (By Air Mail) .LONDON, Nov. 24. David Spring, 48, a manufacturer’s agent, of Holland road, Hove, was at Clerkenwell Police Court committed for trial at the London Sessions on a charge of attempting to obtain £2OO by false pretences from Mrs Aubrey Rubins, a widow, of Clarewood Court, W.l, Spring, who was represented by Mr Derek Curtis Benett. pleaded “ Not guilty” and reserved his defence. Evidence had been given by Mrs Rubins that on October 24 she discovered that jewellery valued at over £2OOO was missing from her flat. She reported her loss to the police. On November 9 she received a letter saying that the jewellery would be returned to her if £he took £2OO in £1 notes, in a white handbag, and left them on a seat facing Holland road, Hove. She was asked to confirm the arrangement by a newspaper advertisement. Mrs Rubins gave evidence at Marylebone Police Court on' Saturday before catching a boat for America. Miss Lilian Gladys Jones, a clerk, of College Gate, Brighton, giving evidence at Clerkenwell yesterday, sam that at 7 p.m. on November 11, on the instructions of the Hove police, she went to a corner seat of a shelter on the Hove front, opposite Holland road, and a minute later went away, leaving a white handbag behind her on the seat. Police Evidence Detective Bidgood, of the Hove Borough Police, said that at 6.30 a.m. the same night he went to the shelter and sat in a corner seat. When he arrived the defendant was already seated, facing towards the sea. When Miss Jones arrived she sat on the other side, with her back to the, accused. Almost immediately after she left, the accused walked round and sat where she had been. He remained seated for about a minute, and then walked slowly in the direction of Holland road, carrying the handbag. The witness stopped him about 20 yards from the shelter, and said: “I am a police officer.” Before he could say any more the accused said: “ I am going after the lady. She has left her handbag behind, on the seat.” At the police station the accused was given particulars of the loss of the jewellery and a copy of the letter to Mrs Rubins was read to him. He said: "I know nothing at all about the jewellery. Cross-examined, the officer said that the accused had mentioned that a woman had been annoying him, and that he had moved round from one side of the shelter to the other because he was being molested by the woman. Inspector Griffey, cross-examined, said that the accused had lived at Hove since June this year. He had no convictions against him, and when his address was searched nothing incriminating was found there. There was nothing to connect him with the loss of the jewellery.