LONDON BANK RAID.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14013, 18 September 1909, Page 6

LONDON BANK RAID.

AUDACIOUS ATTEMPT TO OBTAIN £120,000. A daring attempt was made on Tuesday. July 2i; to defraud four London banks of £120,000. The tanks in question each received on the same morning a cablegram from Rio de Janeiro in bank cipher, properly authenticated by secret cdue words, directing them to pay to a certain man mentioned, whose address was given nt a Bloomabnry hotel, the sum of nearly £30,000. and to charge the senders of the cablegram with the amount. A call was first made at the Russian Bartk in Oracechurch Street. The magnitude of the sum asked for had made the officiate suspicious, ana the latter's answers to questions not proving satisfactory, an appointment was made for another day. Communication was opened with Rio de Janeiro, and it transpired that the cablegram was a forgery, and had been sent by a man who was formerly an employee of the South American Bank. Meanwhile three other men had called at three other banks on precisely similar errands, but with no more success than that achieved by the first. The city police, as soon as they received notification of the facts, adviw>d the city banks and other banking houses throughout the country of Iho form of fraud which the men were nttempting to practise. A description of the caller at tlse Russian Bank has been secured, and also that of his companion, but no arrests have so far been made.