MASTER FORGER SOUGHT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17945, 24 November 1932, Page 10

MASTER FORGER SOUGHT

WHOLESALE CHEQUE FRAUDS LONDON, Oc:t. 23. A watch is being kept throughout London and in towns as far apart as Birmingham and Bournemouth for the master forger, who for months lias hafflei] the police and swindled the hanks, while the “small fry” of his gang have been captured and sent to g aol - , , . The existence of this man who organises wholesale cheque frauds was revealed at the Old Bailey, when a member of the gang wan .sentenced to five years’ penal servitude for uttering forged cheques.

The frauds, it was discovered, start with thefts from letter boxes which provide the master forger with two valuable requisites —the circumstances of the waiter, and his signature. The signatures are .copied and used on orders for cheque books, presented at the hanks by men of good appearance and cultured voice; the signatures are copied again on to the cheque forms which are presented at banks in the normal way of payment, No member of the gang is aware of the forger’s identity. His agents ■carry out orders mysteriously received and report at small provincial towns, receiving through secret channels their share of the proceeds.