A BOLD IMPOSTURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3818, 17 May 1927, Page 6

A BOLD IMPOSTURE.

OLD OFFENDER SENTENCED. NEW PLYMOUTH, May 11. He was a warrant officer, Henry William Charles Beaument, he said, and was < n leave from H.M.S. Renown. According to his credentials he was well-connected at Home. He carried newspaper photographs of the Hon. Wentworth Beaument and the Hon. Ella Beaument, “his little sister,” off for a drive at Bretton Park, the home of Viscount Allendale, their father. He also carried a letter addressed to the Viscountess Allendale, his mother. He had badges and a cutting from a newspaper, announcing the arrival in Hawera of “Record Quartermaster Staff Officer Bcaument, of H.M.S. Renown,” and he wore a bright uniform jh keeping.

He stepped jauntily into the dock at the Police Court this morning, for all his confidence and all his documentary evidence had failed - to convince Detective Sergeant Meiklejohn that he was genuine, although he had stayed at the best hotels in Hawera and New Plymouth. He had onlv Is 6d when arrested and. further, his finger prints corresponded with those of William Henry M'Kay, who was well known to the police. Up to the morning of his appearance in court he had maintained that he was not M'Kay. Nevertheless, when charged with being idle and disorderly and with insufficient means of support he pleaded guilty. “Ho is an out and out imposter, ’ said the detective, when handing a list of previous convictions to Mr W. Tate, S.M., “and I suggest he should receive the maximum of three months.” The defendant had nothing to say, and was sentenced to three months’ hard labour.