SALE OF AERODROME

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27157, 12 August 1949, Page 7

SALE OF AERODROME

Confidence Trick Foiled

NZPA Special Correspondent Rec. 9 p.m. LONDON, Aug. 11. What was described by Scotland Yard officers as the largest attempted confidence trick in British history was nipped in the bud when the police discovered that a band of confidence men had practically completed arrangements to sell a large, disused Royal Air Force aerodrome to a South African for a sum in the vicinity of £250,000. The South African, who decided not to prosecute when he discovered he was being swindled, flew from Cape Town to inspect the ground, and was shown over it by several men, who represented themselves as officials authorised to dispose of it. The Eurchase was to include several uildings and a quantity of used equipment. “It was something like trying to sell Brooklyn bridge,” said one of the Scotland Yard officers.