WOMAN’S DOUBLE LIFE.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 15995, 8 December 1923, Page 9

WOMAN’S DOUBLE LIFE.

A LEADER IN SOCIETY.

SECRET PAST REVEALED

A woman’s life of crime while mixing in the highest social circles, and the revelation of her past well connected husband, has been disclosed following a prosecution for shop-lifting and stealing, at the Bournemouth. Police Court, in England. Mrs Helen Vera Maclaren, thirtynine, described by her counsel as charming, well educated and artistic, but a woman 'with a “moral kink,” is the central 'figure. She was married seven years ago to a prominent Bournemouth man, who was unaware that she had been four times convicted for theft. But she was known to the police in her youth as an audacious and confirmed thief, 'who had for years lived a double life, and her tragedy is that on her release from her second term of imprisonment thirteen years ago she abandoned her criminal career, and seemed to have left it behind for ever.

Her secret past might have remained hidden but for an unaccount able lapse into her old days, leading to the police court, a plea of guilty on three charges of theft, and a sentence of six months imprisonment.

Born of respectable parents, and although well cared for in her youth, she developed at an early age social ambitions and love of luxury said to have been fostered by reading romantic literature.

FIRST CRIME AT SEVENTEEN. At the age of seventeen she plunged into a life of crime and adventure, and for nine years, during which she moved in the most exclusive circles and deceived some of the best known people in society, she stole thousands of pounds’ worth of jewels and clothes.

At one time she obtained a situation as a companion to a woman well-kno'wn in North Country, but soon herself appeared as a leader of fashion.

Three times she was, convicted of theft, and 'the third time she found herself in prison, but still her procilivities were unchecked.

In 1910,- as Madeline Lloyd, she went to the Isle of Wight during Cowes week, anl engaged a most expensive suite at a noted hotel. Fashionably dressed, talented and apparently wealthy, she made an immense impression, and soon gained the friendship of titled women, who took her everywhere,, and introduced her to members of the Royal Yacht Squadron. It is said that she was presented to Royalty. Certainly she was welcomed wherever she went.

At the height of her popularity she was arrested. Unknown to her friends she had been systematically defrauding tradesmen and stealing jewels from the moment she arrived at Cowes.

She was sentenced to twelve months in the second division for this outbreak, and from her release until her arrest in Bournemouth she did not again come under the notice of the police. DECORATED FOR WAR SERVICE.

During the war she threw herself into Red Cross work, and was decorated for her services. She met her husband while she was working in a canteen at Andover. He had not the s'igMest suspicion of his wife’s history until the Bournemouth police began inquiries into a series of hotel, jewel and shop robberies, culminating in her arrest in the principal square mBournemouth.

When charged at the Police Court she admitted stealing:

A silver bag, valued at £46 10s. and a cigarette holder, valued at £6O, belonging to Mr Inez Lilian Peek, whose husband is a partner in the biscuit-making firm of Peek, Frean and Co. Clothes valued at £45, belonging to Mr Louis Michael Bianchi, a Bournemouth tradesman; and a musquash coat, belonging to Mrs Kathleen Violet Sharkey.

Superintendent Garrett added there were eight other cases of shoplifting in the borough. An appeal for leniency was made by her counsel, who asked the Magis trate to remember the punishment she was undergoing in knowing that her husband had Found out her record.

Mr Maclaren was given permission to visit his wife before she went to prison, and it was stated that on her release he intended to make a home for her in the country, away from shops and other temptations.