AMAZING SWINDLES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17234, 14 April 1930, Page 12

AMAZING SWINDLES

WOMEN ROBBED WAITER POSES AS A COUNT LONDON, Feb. 10. The remarkable career of a goodlooking man with a rich bass voice who lias swindled middle-aged women of thousands of pounds was told to Mr. Bingley, the Maryleboiie magistrate. Henry Irving Enstis, otherwise Henry Anderson Conroy Irving Eustace, 2'i) of Staffordshire House, Walton-on-Thames, was charged with Euphemia Simon Sherrjff, 45, of Bridge Bungalow, Shepperton, Middlesex, with obtaining £47 by fraud. It was stated that Eustis went to an hotel in Cleveland Gardens, Bayswater, W., with Miss Sherriff, whom he represented as his aunt. They stayed for three weeks, and Eustis talked of a wealthy great uncle at Staines. His cheque for £3O was dis-j honored and he was arrested. The, second charge related to the hiring of a motor ear and for which he paid with a bogus cheque. FAKED BANK-NOTE Detective-Sergeant Duncan said that Eustis had a cleverly faked pass-book showing that he had a credit balance : of £95,442. Mr. Bingley: Picrpont Morgan isn't. in it with this man. j Mr. Lawrence Vine, defending the; woman, said that, experienced though; she was, she was completely deceived by "this young rascal, who could charm a pear oft a cherry tree." j Miss Sherriff, giving evidence, said she met Eustis when she was the; manageress of an hotel. tie told her' stories of an enormous amount of money coming to him from Ireland, 1 and said he wanted her as his house-j keeper. She went with him to; 'Bournemouth -and paid all the ex-j penses. She regarded him as a man of little immediate means, but great expectations. | Mr. Bingley said her position was an amazing one. He would give her the benefit of the doubt and discharge, her. j Detective-Sergeant Duncan said Eustis was born in a fishing village in Cornwall. After ibeing employed as a gardener's boy he left home and went into lodgings with a woman, fromj whom he stole jewellery valued at £26. He was bound over for this offence and became a waiter at seaside resorts in Devonshire. In 102/5 he had a serious motor accident, ami was treat-, ed at the Sidmouth .Hospital, where he met three benevolent elderly women well known in Devonshire for their charitable work. His amazing plausibility elicited their and one of them took him to her house and treated him as one of the family. In It! months he had obtained £IO,OOO. At Teignmouth he met another woman and got £ISOO from her. A .('ORNISH CASTLE Then he bought a motor business at Walton-on-Thamos and ran a luxury ear with a chauffeur and « valet. In November, 1027, he stayed, at, a Kensington hotel, where he met another woman, to whom he represented himself as "Eustace Count of Boulogne," with an ancient castle in Cornwall. Ho made such an impression on her that within three weeks she had parted with £19;500. Judgment was given against Eustis for £3OOO in the High Court, and in his dilemma ho turned to a Doncaster woman living in London, leading her to believe that he was a man of high birth. , Pretending that: 'he had £BOOO in the bank, but only one cheque, he induced her to exchange four signed blank cheques for his. One he tilled in for £<sooo and gave to a firm of solicitors to satisfy the High Court judgment, and save, his imprisonment, and with another one for £844 lie bought a motor car. 'For this fraud he was sentenced at the Old Bailey in July, 1028, to 22 months in the second division. He was released from prison early in January, and then met Miss Sherriff. Mr. Bingley said that Eustis had swindled these wretched women right and left, and ought to be sent to penal servitude, for he was a danger to the community. Another court had tried the effect of a long term in the second division, and lie, would try a sentence of nine months' hard labor to .see. if it would bring Eustis to his senses.