HALFPENNIES FOR SOVEREIGNS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10957, 27 April 1907, Page 6 (Supplement)

HALFPENNIES FOR SOVEREIGNS.

HOW BANK AUTHORITIES WERE DECEIVED.

The arrest at Winnipeg of a Manchester Bank of England clerk, named Hen vy Douglas Anderson, on a charge of having abstracted gold to the value of £1031 from bags made by him. him, has brought to light a remarkable', story. \ Inquiries at Manchester show that An derson was an assistant at the bank, and that early last -August he took leave of absence on the ground of indisposition. At that time there was no reason to doubt the truth of his statement, but a few days later the officials were alarmed by the complaint that the bags of gold >eht from the Bank of England to anoth.r bank were not of the stated value. Mr F. W. Peel, the agent, happened to te away on his .holidays, but tne sub-agent, Mr Hardcastle, took the matter m hand without delay. . BAGS WEIGHTED WITH COPPER, A careful examination of the bags, which were supposed to contain £1000 worth of gold, revealed a number of copper coins. Mr Hardcastle's' attention was then turned to the bags of gold m the strong-room of the Bank 01 England, and to his astonishment he again found halfpennies mixed, up with Ihe sovereigns and half-sovereigns. ' _■ All these rceptacles, ,it : is' said, had passed through the' hand? of Anderson, and his initials appeared on the outside. The gold was supposed to be made up into packages containing £250. These were weighed and, it is stated, put temporarily on one side. From many of these packages sovereigns, making up a sum of £1081, were, it is alleged, abstracted, and the weight made up by the stubstitution of halfpennies, wliich had been selected so as to turn the balance at the correct figure. A warrant was obtained for Anderson's arrest, but a week had then elapsed, and the missing clerk's whereabouts could not be traced. , •. It was ascertained, however, that Mr. Anderson and her child had gone to Whitstable for her holidays, and it is stated that she handed a sum of money to the police which had been remittted by the missing man. It is added that a Manchester police officer is leaving for Winnipeg to hring Anderson back for trial. -. ..