“DR FORTESCUE”

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3781, 13 July 1936, Page 4

“DR FORTESCUE”

BOGUS DOCTOR’S PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE. “DR LESLIE” IN THE SOUTH. Quite a lot of interets was manifest in the exploits of the bogus “Dr B. D. Fortesque” in this district, and in his appearance in the local Court, when he was convicted of false pretences and sentenced to two months' imprisonment. The ’police intimated to the Court that the accused, whose rightful name was Ivanhoe Huia Les-lie-Bicknell, would be dealt with at Wanganui on other charges. Since then we learn that it is probable he will be making a veritable tour ot the North Island, in custody, to answer somewhat similar charges. However, this article is intended to give some information to our readers about a bogus doctor, obviously the same man, who figured in Palmerston North some months ago. One ot our readers has supplied the following taken from a southern con temporary, published in November last:— CARRIED A STETHESCOPE. "Complete with gloves, spats and walking stick, and otherwise sartorially perfect, Ivanhoe Huia LeslieBicknell descended upon the Palmerston North Hospital, presented his card, and imparted the glad tidings that he was Dr Leslie, a young doctor from Australia, anxious to study hosnital methods in this country. So they took him in. For a fortnight he swaggered round the wards and visited the operating theatre in his nice white - coat and carrying a stethoscope. “He was very charming, and the lacly members of the staff smiled his way and made a tremendous fuss of him. Then the bubble burst, and "Dr” Leslie went to gaol. "Now all the staff are telling each other they knew all the time there was something fishy about him, and no doubt “Dr” Leslie, who isn’t a doctor at all, finds it a harder proposition pushing a long handled shovel hi gaol to toying with a stethoscope and watching how tliey uo things in the operating theatre. “It happens that Ivanhoe Huia Leslie-Bicknell is just a plain sales man from Wellington, who had been sold up in business in that city, so decided to sell himself and his charming personality to the Palmerstou North Hospital. He managed it very well. ONE MONTH IN GAOL. “Even, bogus doctors must live, and that was how it came about that this particular one crashed from the pleasant atmosphere in which he had been basking, into the dock at the Palmerston North Police Court. He gave his hotelkeeper a valueless cheque and pocketed the change. Net result, one month in gaol. “LeMie-Bicknell’s next appearance in Court was in Auckland on October 14th, and he was sentenced to a further three months' imprisonment for issuing valueless cheques in Wellington and Auckland. They know him very well in Australia, too, but but little to his credit. “The deeds of Ivanhoe Huia LeslieBicknell make quite as amazing reading as the deeds of Sir Walter Scott's celebrated character, who careered around with his lance at rest astride a big black horse. “Leslie-Bicknell turned out to be a very dark horse indeed. He arriveu at the Palmerston North Hospital under full armour of suede gloves and spats, a nice new overcoat, a walking stick and a magnificent air of selfpossession. "And like the original Ivanhoe, the ladies at tile hospital put white veils round his neck, so to speak, and made a great fuss over him. “He was really just a relic of the deceased business venture of Lesley and Company, Indent Agents, of Wellington, having been sold up there, and departing under the cloud of a £6 debt for rent. AN AUCKLANDER.

“Leslie-Bicknell is an Aucklander by birth, and is 24 years old. His father is dead, and his mother resides in Sydney, while he is married and has a young son who lives with his mother in Wellington. “What medical knowledge he has he obtained during two years’ study at. the Sydney University Medical School, which he attended from 1928 until 1930. “But along he came to the Palmerston North Hospital, and he knew just enough about the medical profession to pass himself off as a fully qualified doctor. "This is how the story there sounded: ‘I am Dr Leslie. I have recently arrived from Australia, and, being interested in your hospitals, would like to have a look at your methods and pick up what information I can.’ He concluded by presenting his card, and from then on the password was Open Sesame.

"Leslie-Bicknell had the time of his young life at the hospital for a fortnight, revelling in the company of feminine members of the staff. He always had a fair chance of doing a spot of borrowing from some unsuspecting member of the hospital stall. “He wandered round the wards in a white and immaculate coat, with a businesslike stethoscope in his pocket. The operating theatre held him spellbound. He never did a job of work there, though. He just looked on. IN A NEW WORLD! "Doubtless he had occasionally to use his beautiful stethoscope on his own heart, because such amazing luck as he had in passing himself oft so splendidly, must certainly have taken the brakes off his pulse. From a sold-up indent agent he rose almost in a night to the position of medico-prince charming in a new world of nice starched white uniforms.

“The mail bag of the hospital assumed almost alarming proportions, for letters seemed to come from all over the place for ‘Dr’ Leslie. Unfortunately a lot of the envelopes contained those horridly mundane documents known as bills, and as a matter of fact, bills are still arriving at the hospital for him. “Gloves and spats figure very largely on the item list, and having had a sample of sartorial perfection in ’the person of ‘Doctor’ Leslie when he first arrived, the staff now considers - the bills for the said gloves and spats, and ponders on the ways in which Leslie went about getting them. “But then Nemesis overcame ‘Doctor’ Leslie, and dropped on him with a loud and resounding thump, quite

loud enough to set the hospital staff thinking very furiously indeed. “The trouble began when he swung what is known as a 'hot one’ across the licensee of a Palmerston North Hotel by presenting him with a valueless cheque. Not only was the cheque a "dud, ’ but it was made out for a greater amount than Leslie owed the hotelkeeper for board and lodging, and he pocketed the change. “Nemesis having dropped on Him, tiien the police dropped as well, and the result was that Leslie paid the penalty ot a month in gaol. And that was that. ACCUSED’S HISTORY. “But Leslie-Bicknell's efforts at imposture were really classic. His history, according to his stories, varied according to the various parts of Palmerston North he found himself m when telling them. “The police said when he appeared in Court that he seemed, to have made a practice of imposing on people. He told a Hastings doctor that he was a returned naval officer invalided through war injuries. On other occasions he was a bacteriologist, a medical student, an actuary, and an audito. 1 . "Perhaps the most amazing part of the whole business, however, is that when Leslie was caught, the people he had so thoroughly fooled, and in particular some of the ladies at the hospital, said they knew all along I hat he was 'no good.’ "The presentation of Leslie’s card seems to have put him on the box seat from the start. “The real truth is that on his return from Australia last April Leslie set himself up under the name of Lesley and Company, as an indent agent in Wellington. He then assumed the name ot Alan Copeland. The business, however, was no good, and he was sold up, and came to Palmerston North as a result of answering an advertisement for a man to canvass tor advertisements. Nor did he get the firm much business then either. “Having got himself into gaol as a result of that unfortunate valueless, cheque at Palmerston North, LeslieBicknell next found that there were even more charges to answer. MAGISTRATE’S COMMENT.

“He appeared in Auckland Magistrate’s Court on October 14th, again charged with issuing valueless cheques—and he admitted everything. He was charged in detail with obtaining at Auckland on March 25th, 1933, goods to the value of Is 3d and £1 18s 9d in money, obtaining goods valued at lOd and £1 9s 2d at Wellington, on September 6th, and on the following day, at Wellington, the sum of £3, all by means of valueless cheques. "The sooner you get back to Australia the better; we do not want you in New Zealand, 1 ' said Mr F. K. Hunt, S.M., when sentencing Leslie to three months’ imprisonment, to be served at the expiration of his sentence for .the offence at Palmerston North.

“According to the police report from Sydney,” continued the magistrate, "you have been scheming and robbing there for months. You must have told a plausible story to the Court ever there to have been treated as leniently as you were.” "And that was that. Ivanhoe Huia Leslie-Bicknell is now serving the prison terms, and in all probability his relationship with a long-handled shovel is much closer than with the stethoscope. But there is no doubt about the fact that the staff of the Palmerston North Hospital can from now on be regarded as authorities on gloves and spats!’’