DANGEROUS GANG

Southland Times, Issue 22949, 23 July 1936, Page 11

DANGEROUS GANG

FORGERS. TRAPPED. JUDGE’S TRIBUTE TO POLICE. Judicial bouquets attended the recent break-up at the Old Bailey, London, of a particularly clever and dangerous gang of forgers. The bouquets came from Mr Justice Charles, the bachelor judge. In the first place he warmly complimented the police officers associated with the investigation foi bringing the criminals to book; and then presented a bouquet of oldfashioned English flowers to a young woman, who, with her colleagues, had listened to the trial for six days. “I see there are two ladies on the jury,” remarked his lordship, “but"! have only one bouquet. Although I must not encourage gambling, I suppose they must toss for it.” The difficulty was solved by the younger jurywoman waiving her right and the bouquet being handed to the other. The principal conspirator in the gang, surprised amid all the paraphernalia of a forger, committed suicide in a prison cell before the trial; another was sentenced to five years’ penal servitude, and two others to three years’ penal servitude each. Cunning Plans.

The amount of which banks in various parts of Britain were swindled ran into thousands of pounds. The method employed was to steal letters containing cheques, forge customers’ names first to requests for cheque-books, and then to cheques. To put banks off their guard letters were forged in the names of customers advising them of business transactions and asking for cheques to be cashed. At an earlier trial one woman and a young man were dealt with. They were William John Duckling, garage hand, sent to Borstal for three years for conspiracy to utter cheques, and Florence Ward, aged 36, married, sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment for conspiring to forge and utter cheques. Three other prisoners, Joseph Eustace, aged 57, engineer; Walter William Lee, aged 42, bookmaker; and John Taylor, aged 40, tailor, were found guilty of conspiracy and uttering cheques, while another woman, Dorothy Taylor, aged 38. married, was found not guilty on all the charges against her, and was discharged. Suspect’- Suicide.

Mr Eustace Fulton, prosecuting, told tne Court that Mrs Taylor was a charwoman and had been employed by Mr Ardon Moss, of Maida Vale, London, who owned or acted for the owner of property. It was alleged that she stole letters received from people who sent their rent to he- employer, and that she handed these letters to a very skilful forger, who forged requests to banks, in the names of customers, for cheque-books, and then forged cheques which were cashed by one or other of the persons charged. Cheques for £375 and £435, forged in the name of Mr Moss were presented at a bank in Kingsway. Bankers’ drafts were given in payment, and with these Joseph Eustace opened an account at Belford in the name of Buxton. In another case a cheque for £6OO was forged in the name of Mrs Borthwick, a customer of a bank in Reading, and, it was alleged, cashed by Eustace in the same town. Detective-Sergeant Keen revealed that when he visited a house at Holloway, Albert Adam Armstrong was captured red-handed beside a small printing press. Armstrong committed suicide in prison immediately after his arrest. He had served two sentences of penal servitude for forgery. Woman’s Evidence. In evidence, Mrs Ward declared she had no knowledge that Armstrong or Ward, with whom she had lived at Holloway, was using their flat to forge cheques. She knew Armstrong had a small printing machine, and thought he used it in connection with racing-cards and tipping. Armstrong, she declared, told the police, “I ask you for no leniency myself, but you cannot touch her. She knows nothing about it.” Mrs Taylor, on oath, denied that she had stolen any letters or documents from her employer’s flat. Mr Justice Charles said he had no doubt that Duckling got into the rrfiddle of a lot of criminals. He added that but for Mrs Ward’s good character and the fact that she might hav been influenced by the man with whom she had been living, he could not have avoided sending her to penal servitude. Eustace, Lee, and John Taylor were now further tried as habitual criminals, but were all found not guilty on this charge. For the other offences Eustace was sentenced to five years, and Lee and Taylor each to three years. Eustace, a grey-haired, well-spoken man, was the person who cashed most of the cheques. He was described as a clever engineer, and his counsel told of an article on “Relative Heat Valves” he had written for a trade journal.