BARK ROBBERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 2

BARK ROBBERS.

A daring theft was committed on July If in the banking department of the Bank oi England. Two " walk-clerks," or messengers; were sent from Messrs Coutts to the BanL of England with an order for £3000. One oJ the clerks, it appears, remained outside in s cab, while his colleague proceeded to obtair the money, which was handed to him across the counter in three canvas ..bags, .each of whict contained £1000. The clerk seemed to hay« had his attention diverted in some way, and ht leffc the counter. His absence, however, was quite momentary, but on his returning one oi the bags was missing. An alarm was at once raised, and the police of the Old Jewry Station were immediately communicated with. It is stated that, almoat at the moment of the discovery of the theft, a respectable looking, well dressed man left the banking department, carrying a bag in his hand, and it is assumed thai this Mas the stolen i)roperty. Mr Walter H. Bosanquet, solicitor to the London Bankers' Association, informed a representative of the Daily Mail that there ie little hope of the arrest of the perpetrators of the recent robbery at the Bank of England, owing to the impossibility of identifying gold. " Robberies of this kind," said Mr Bosan> quet, " seem to come in cycles, and the gangs who carry them out are generally composed of smart Americans, who exercise marvellous patience and ingenuity. ' Walk-clerks ' should be always on the look-out, for they *■ are never safe from the operations of these dangerous criminals, who may watch a man for months, and then pounce upon the money entrusted to him the moment he appears to be off his guard. " Mr Bosanqxiet then cited two separate cases where clerks, after having put their money and cheques in front of the cashier, turned to speak to friends. In both instances the money disappeared as if by magic, the haul 'in one caso amounting to £5000. Unluckily for the thieves £3500 was in crossed cheques, and of the balance £1000 was in a single Bank of England note. The £1000 note, however, was successfully passed off on the racecourse at C'hantilly ; indeed, Mr Bosanquet declares that stolon notes of large amount are almost invariably passed oft" in the betting ring of one racecourse or another. Ono of the most impudent attempts at robbery on record was made at the London aud Westminster Bank a few years ago, when an enterprising individual actually wont into a portion of the bank to which the public are not admitted, took down a tin box of securities from the shelf, and carried it as far as the door, where he was stopped by a porter, who suspected that something was wrong. In yet another case a bank porter who wa? taking out a bag of gold to put inside a cab at the door wa-3 met on the steps by an individual, who, with the exclamation, "Here you are," seized the bag as if he were the waiting clerk, and then disappeared. In answer to an inquiry, Mr Bosanquet told the Daily Mail representative that, though the ordinary bank forger has been practically stamped out, the men engaged in bank robbery to-day are far more desperate and resourceful than their predecessors. If it be necessary for the coup they have in hand, they can always secure the co-operation of a capitalist. In one case whore a huge swindle was perpetrated through the medium of circular notes which were cashed on the Continent, a large sum of money had to be expended at the outset, and the money was found by a man of largo means, who, of course, was to have his share of the plunder. In connection with the question of forgery, Mr Bosanquet remarked that the cleverest forgery that ever came under his notice was

Ithat of a cheque drawn by a foreign firm on . a London bank. To make things absoluteljr J safe the amount was actually perforated at I the top ol" the cheque, yet the perforation was t successfully altered and the cheque cashed for , 10 times the amount for which it was origiP nally drawn. The man who did this was neverfound, but a convict who had been concerned <• in the matter subsequently explained that the i I perforations had been filled up with paper 5 pulp, and the amoxmt altered from tens of pounds to thousands. So cleverly had th© change been mado that it could not be de5 tected even with the aid of a powerful micro- * scope. j: Careful records of all the bank robberies | •, are kept at Mr Bosanquet's office, and when. ' , a fresh caso occurs reference is immediately J [ made to these in order to ascertain whether 5 |it resembles any previous crime. In this way • j the perpetrators of a robbery are frequenlly L ) traced, since criminals generally stick to cue I '■ particular method.