A FEMALE IMPOSTER.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 4742, 16 December 1886, Page 4

A FEMALE IMPOSTER.

A case came before- the Fitzroy Court, .Melbourne, which exposed an extraordinary series of impositions by a woman. The accused, Mrs Mary Grant, a well dressed woman of about thirty years of age, answered to three charges of obtaining money and goods by false pretences. From what transpired during the hearing of the three cases it is supposed that the prisoner h.ia victimised at least 100 persons in the suburbs. In the first case investigated the victim was a jeweller at Coburg, named August Frettling, from whom she obtained goods to the value of £28, j;ivin? valueless cheques in payment. The swindle was carried out in a most elaborate scyle/, The woman drove up in a hansom c;ib to a local bank, and purchased tive allotments of land from Mr Thomas Fischer, the manager, for which she gave her cheque (valueless), of course, for £750, and received a clear receipt for that amount. With the deed of sale thus procured, she drove on to Frettlings, and induced him to go with her to a contractor named Pobjoy and an architect named Nunn, with whom she agreed to have a villa built at a cost of £750. Before leaving sho obtained £5 in cash from Pobjoy, her own chequo for that amount given in exchange being marked by Frettling. The cheques in this instance were drawn on a bank in Carlton, upon the manager of which she had called and asked to have a sum of £250 transferred from Sandhurst to open an account in Carlton. She wr Ac out a cheque for that amount, paid it in, wroto her name in the signature book, for and received a cheque book, for which, a3 well as four telegrams, the manager had to pay himself, as the deposit in the Sandhurst Bank turned out to bo a myth. The victim in the second charge was a Fitzroy pawnbroker named Davis, who not only gave her jewellery and goods to a lar>;e amount, but also £8 10s in money, all paid for by valueless cheques. In the third c;ise a widow lady named Marie Sniythe was imposed upon to the extent of £30. To this lady the prisoner offered to sell a house in Moore street, Fitzroy, on remarkably easy terms. The purchase money was to be £80, of which £20 was to be paid down as deposit, and the balance at £2 per month. To carry out this farce the prisoner h>^H".>k Mrs Smythe to a lawyer's office and gave instructions for the conveyance of the house to her, but she could not product) the deeds, and her description of the property was vague, so that the lawyer declined to transact the busines*. Mrs Smythe, however, paid the £20 deposit. One of the witnesses in the latter case, |k named McKredel, a grocer, stated that prisoner had obtained goods to the value <>[ £150 from him, the cheques she gave him being dishonored. Mr Fischer appeared for the defence, but did not attempt any ; and the prisoner wa3 committed for trml at tho ensuing genera cessions. That the abuse of charity aonietuues surpasses the dreams of notion 13 illustuitod by a story told by the Napier Telu;:i\iph. At a Board meeting held on I'ucuuher 1, in Napier, it appeared that ii Nnpier resident received five shillings a week for the support of a boy. The latter tvas apprenticed by his boarding housekeeper t'j a butcher, and the latter fed the boy and gave him a small wage, so that his lodging was a profitable transaction for his charitably disposed landlord. A threat to prosecute the latter for receiving money to which he was not entitled, resulted in tho crown a week being no longer considered n. necessary payment. " And now," said the Bishop of London. ah a school inspecton, " would any l:ttle boy or any little g : rl like to a3k me a question !" There wns a silence for two and then a youngster of eight enquired boldly : " Please, sir when* the circus coming V It is Worth a Trial. — "I was troubled for rrmiy years with kidney complaint, gravel, &c, my blood became thin, I was dull aud inactive, could hardly crawl about, and was an old worn-out inuu all over, and could get nothing to help me until I got Amuriiun Co.'s Hop Bitters, and now my bioorl ami kidneys are all right, and dow I am as active as a man of thirty, although I am seventy-two, and I have no doubt it will do as well for others of my age. It is worth the trial. :> — (Father.) Isotice. Post Card Proof. Salisbury, Term., April 1, 1883. Oksts :— I was afflicted with serious Kidney and Urinary trouble for twelve years. Att^r tiying all the doctors and patent medicines I could hear of, I used two bottles of Hop Bitters and am perfectly cured. B. F. BOOTH. Washington, D.C., April 3, 1883. To 1/iL Hop Hitlers Co. • Sins : — I wrte this as a token of the great appiceiation I have for your Bitters. 1 was afflicted with inflammatory Rheumatism 7 years, and no medicine sneincd to do me any good until I tried three bottles of your Hop J-Jittcry, and to my inipiise I am as well today its over I was. I hope you may have groat success in this great and valuable medicine. Anyone wishing to l<now more about my cure can learn l>y addressing me. E. Al WILLIAMS, 1103 ltith St. ProHecuto tho Swindlers! 11 \-ii"ii 3011 .;ill (or American Hop Bittera (weo Lfien tv.!^- of Hops on the white label and Dr Souj,k'bmirae blow 11 in the bottle), tho vendor hands out anyn thin^ hut American Hop Bittern, refu3e it and shun t'.iit \ citlor a* you would a vipor ; and if lie haa taken your money for anything else indict him for the fraud aii'l mi; him for damages for the swindle, and we will jijiv you liberally for the conviction.