When the Bank of England was Defrauded

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 810, 2 November 1929, Page 20

When the Bank of England was Defrauded

Recalling a Sensational Case of Swindlers who Made the “Old Lady of Threadneedle Street” Shudder .. . Clearing £IOO,OOO.

a HE Old Lady of Threadneedle Street (the Bank j of England) must still | blush—and with reason —over a few pages in her history. They are the I pages containing the record of a great fraud whereby a quartet of American crooks, by an audacious campaign of forgery, despoiled her of more than £IOO,OOO. And the amount might have been even higher if a little mistake—the sort of trifling mistake which has brought so many criminals to the dock—had not awakened the Old Lady to the way her vaults were being pillaged. It all happened a long time ago, in IS7”. But the Bank of England, says Mr. George Dilnot, in his introduction to the volume dealing with “The Bank of England Forgery,” in the Famous Trials series, reviewed in “T.P.’f Weekly,” "still has cold shudders down the spine at the recollection of the affair.” The bank, he adds, coldly and loftily refused to verify one of the figures involved in the fraud. It was no doubt necessary to the exact presentation of the case. But the real interest in his reconstruction of the fraud is not in the amounts obtained by a masterly series of forgeries, but in the human figures, the forgers. The Preliminary Canter There were three disciples: George Bidwell, his brother Austin, and George Macdonnell. The oldest, George Bidwell. was only in the early thirties, but all three were already known to the police as among the retinue of a notorious American forger, Engles. The elder Bidwell and Macdonnell had all the tricks of the forger at their finger tips when they came over to Europe and, by way of a preliminary canter, made a nice little haul by means of forged letters of introduction and credit. They had one or two bad frights and narrow escapes during the campaign, and a subsequent trip to Brazil, but they got home with well-lined pockets. Emboldened by this success the forgers were very ready to take the chance offered when a confiding Londou tailor gave Austin Bidwell and Macdonnell an introduction (under the assumed names by which he knew them, as wealthy American customers) to the Burlington Gardens branch of the Bank of England. Bidwell declared afterward that they had then no idea of using the account tor fraudulent purposes; but of the opportunity was born the plan which eventually brought them to the Old Bailey. "A Great Discovery” There is no room to describe here the complicated operations whereby the Bank of England, by means of 94 forged bills of exchange, was robbed, in little more than a month, of more than £IOO,OOO. Some knowledge of finance and banking methods is necessary to appreciate the daring scheme which originated with "a

great discovery” by Macdonnell. The discovery was that a bill drawn on the London and Westminster Bank which Macdonnell had purchased from a certain Moses Ezekiel in Rotterdam was cashed at the bank in London without being sent to the acceptor for verification. “In other words, at that time a bill of exchange bearing the acceptance of ?, reputable firm would be discounted by a bank without inquiry. A cunningly forged acceptance, therefore, would pass the scrutiny of the bank and the fraud could not be discovered until the bill fell due.”

The essence of the plot which was formulated in consequence of that discovery, as explained by Mr. Dilnot, was this:

“Under pretence of extensive business operations . . . ‘Warren’ (who was Austin Bidwell) was to pass a series of forged bills of exchange

through his Bank of England account. To aid in the business illusion a ‘Mr. C. J. Horton,’ also an American business man, was created, and opened an account at the Continental Bank. ‘Mr. Warren’s’ affairs were to necessitate large payments to ‘Mr. Horton.’ Both these gentlemen were, in fact, Austin Bidwell. As the money reached the Continental Bank it was to be drawn out in Bank of England notes, which were to be changed into gold, and later again into notes, and finally into United States bonds, so that the money that ultimately came into the possession of the forgers would be unidentifiable as the proceeds of the fraud.” Given Away by a Trifle With immense thoroughness the necessary forms and stamps* were forged. Then the fourth member of

the quartet, a young man. known as Noyes, was imported to act as catspaw, to collect the money and to provide a line of retreat. All went according to plan; so well, that Macdonnell was kept hard at work making forged bills. Perhaps the very easiness of the game made the forgers a little careless. It w*as a trifle that revealed the swindle —and set them scattering for safety. From two forged bills purporting to be accepted by a financier named Blydenstein the date of sighting had been omitted. As a mere formality, the bank manager sent them to Mr. Blydenstein’s office to be put in order —and the game was up! Noyes was at once arrested—while Bidwell was watching him round the corner. George Bidwell and Macdonnell went to St. Leonards —accompanied by their girls—and demanded in their lodgings a big fire, in which they burned much of the evidence. Then they fled. But they really had been getting careless. In Macdonnell’s lodgings the police found blotting paper with impressions from forged bills. George Bidwell, in his flight, which makes as exciting reading as you will find in any detective story, got to Ireland, where he posed as a Russian. in one hotel he left his scarf, with his real initials

on it, and in another left behind a collar marked G.B. He was caught in Edinburgh, where he was passing as a German medical student.

Macdonnell got to New York, where he was arrested—but not before a corrupt detective had relieved him of some of the booty. Austin Bidwell was caught in Cuba. The quartet met again at the Old Bailey, where the honour of the Old Lady was avenged—by sentences on all four of penal servitude for life. George Bidwell was released; the others served about 20 years. “Except in the case of Noj'es,” says Mr. Dilnot, “I can find no indication of their subsequent lives. Noyes was a hardened old man when I met him some years before the war, and there is no reason to doubt liis assertion that he had lived honestly since his release.”