AMAZING STORY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 985, 30 May 1930, Page 12

AMAZING STORY

WALKING MONEY CHEST

OVER £83,000 IN TWO BAGS Tlie amazing story of the man who was referred to in a case before Mr. Justice Roche in a London court on April 3 as “walking about the streets carrying a suit case which contained £53,000 odd in notes,” is told in a Loudon newspaper. Actually there were two bags; actually they contained at one time more than £53,000. The man is Mr. Frederick William Woods. He brought an action for £28,000 against Mr. Ivor G. Blake, of Cardiff. Tlie case was withdrawn, with costs against Mr. Woods. “I saw a piay last week by an eminent playwright (Mr. Edgar Wallace) on the same topic—‘The Calendar,’ ” said the judge, in passing the remark that it was a, “strange case.” Mr. Woods told his story to the “Daily Express.” He conceived a scheme of .backing racehorses with other people's money—-promising a return of £5 a week for every £IOO invested, providing there were three days’ racing in the week. “The business started in Cardiff in 1921,” ho said. “I sent out no circulars or letters —all my clients came to me bypersonal recommendation. Nearly £250,000 in a Few Months “The money poured in. Within a few months I had received nearly £250,000. It came in so fast; that it frightened me, so I sent a lot of it back.

“Everything went fine at first. I j backed winners. My customers were j happy. My luck was astounding. I j would put £I,OOO on a horse and win I sometimes at 10 or 20 to 1. Then the bank at Cardiff closed my -account. They gave me no reason beyond stating that they did not want my business any longer. “I transferred my money to two accounts in Nottingham, and after a time those banks, too, refused to deal with me any longer. 1 could get no explanation. So I was forced to carry the money around with me. “The business had begun to dwindle by this time, and I had returned a lot money to dissatisfied customers, but I still had between £90,000 and £IOO,OOO. I had no place to put it. There were sovereigns, ten shilling notes, £I,OOO notes, pound notes, shillings, sixpences, even pennies. “I purchased two strong suitcases with good locks, and called at the banks at Nottingham one morning. The money I collected was neatly : piled and bundled in notes. I packed them into bags, and found myself in the streets with the colossal sum of 1 £5?,000 in my hands. “It was a funny sensation. People passed me without the faintest knowledge that I was the biggest living opportunity for crime iu England. “I decided to carry the money with me all the time. In the spring of 1921 I went to the Grand National at Liverpool and loaned by two suitcases to two bookmakers I knew, to stand on! They never knew what was inside. “I always carried £5,000 or £6,000 in notes in my pockets, and I used this for betting. When we were coming away I gave £5 to a tic-tac man for carrying the bags to a taxi-cab. j They were pretty heavy, let me tellj you. He asked me. ‘What have you got | inside?’ ‘Coronas,’ I told him. Dumping the Money on the Bed “I went on with my scheme for j several months, but it. was not going t so well now, and things were getting dangerous. I could see red lights \ ahead. “I came to London in the autumn of ! 1921, and stayed at a well.-known I hotel in the Strand. I decided to count! up the money, and dumped it on the ! bed. Just os it was nicely stacked up iu heaps—a mixture of Treasurv notes, bank notes up to £I,OOO, and,! gold sovereigns—the maid came in! with the tea. The girl dropped the tray and screamed ‘Burglars,’ and we had quite a time explaining things to the j management. At night I simply ; dumped the money under the bed.” " \ Mr. Wood explained - the collapse of | these golden days with a trace of bit-! terness. “I sold the business, handisg over • £17,000. It was all I had left,” he i said. “After that I went into the ex-1 port trade. Not long afterward the I police were on my trail. I was ar- j rested in January, 1922, and got 15 j months on a charge of fraud, at Old Bailey. “The police claimed that some of my clients did not get their money back. All I know is that I paid every- j “That’s the end of the story.”