WOMEN AS THIEVES.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 January 1920, Page 10

WOMEN AS THIEVES.

MAN? LONDON CRIMES. AFTERMATH OF THE WAR. Inquiries into recent hotel robberies ami burglaries on a large scale point to the Fm-t ihat women, whom the police find it diifir.ult to detscc. ar< vc-tponsihie for them, writes a correspondent from London. During the war compulsory registration of all individuals restricted the movements of men and women, but now that ia changed. People can now travel about the country without having to report their presence to the police. It is true persons are still required to register at hotels, but, there being no apparent necessity for this, hotel proprietors have become lax. Criminals found little outlet for their energies during the last 18 months of the war, but a good number, in addition to innumerable recruits, women among them, have returned to their old vocations. The war made women more adventurous and the high wages some have earned has made them extravagant. Now they are unable to procure luxuries by ordinary means, they have adopted dishonest methods.

A Scotland Yard officer with whom I discussed the matter, believes that a smart set of women Jiave banded themselves together and have planned some of the most amazing robberies perpetrated recently, their booty including motor-cars. They are all attractive, plausible, and well-dressed women with an entree in society cireles. They assume the names of titled ladies, and some of them obtain sympathy by pretending to be war widows. Their appearance, address and manners are all in,their favor, and they are always regarded as women of position. It is not impossible that the principal is intimate with all those who are in the habit of entertaining. Quite recently a charming woman of suave personality and polished manners was arrested at a London hotel on suspicion of larceny. The police thought they had made a very important capture, and imagined that her arrest was the solution to many mysterious robberies. In one respect they were correct, for when her" flat at Kensington was searched valuable property stolen from AYest End hotels was recovered. There was reason to believe that the woman operated in conjunction with confederates, but although she was remanded the police were unable to trace any of her associates. Although she had for some time been under police observation, there was never sufficient evidence before her arrest to warrant her being taken into custody.

What first aroused the suspicions of the police was that whenever a hotel robbery was carried out it would invariably be found that she had stayed at the hotel under different aliases. It was only by a lucky chance that she was caught. Despite the fact that she is now under lock and key hotel robberies are on the increase. The activities of these shady women are many, and their nefarious enterprises must bring them in a considerable income. It is not an unreasonable deduction to draw that they themselves entertain on a lavish scale, otherwise they would not receive the invitations they do to societv functions. Probably tliey have West End establishments, and being regarded as women of means are treated with the utmost respect.

Sooner or later, however, they are bound to be discovered, and one of the most sensational stories the world has ever known will be revealed. Scotlan . Yard works unostentatiously, but it nearly Always triumphs