SWINDLER OF WOMEN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9912, 29 July 1910, Page 3

SWINDLER OF WOMEN.

A SCANDALOUS J-RAUD. M' MILL AN GETS SIX MONTHS' HARD LABOUR. Thomas M'Millnn. a man apparently about thirty years of age, unci of a most unprepossessing appearance., pleaded guilty at. tho Magistrate's (".ouvl, this morning to two charges of defrauding women by ['also pretences, and way ssnfoneed to six months' imprisonment with hard labour. He was charged with having, between June 8 and July 27, obtained from a widow sums of money amounting to £lo. and a gold watch valued at .Co. and from a second widow a gold watch valued at £l2, by falsely representing himself to be the owner of a sheep station at Rakaia. Chief-Deloctivo Bishop appeared to prosecute, and Mr Hunt appeared on bohalf of the prisoner. Mr Hunt said that the accused would plead guilty to the charges, and. in order net to drag the names of the women before the Court, he would say nothing about the case.' The watches had been returned, and the accused undertook to refund the moiicv.

Chief-Detective Bishop said the case was one of the worst that had ever come before, the, Court. The accused was one of those, scurrilous persons who were not fit to be at liberty. Ho had previously served a term'of imprisonment, and on June 8 he bed advertised in the " Lyttelton Times" for •'■ A superior young lady as .housekeeper to a gentleman, sheepfanner, South Canterbury.'' A number of women applied for the position, among them being two unfortunate women whom he arranged to me.efc ( at a boarding-house in Manchester Street. By a curious coincidence both women wero widows of the samo surname, though they wore not related. By means of his false representation that ho was the owner of u sheep station at Rakaia. the accused induced the two women to give him money, and from each of them he obtained a gold watch, explaining that his own valuable timepiece had been given to a watchmaker for repair and tho latter had sent it by mistako to the sheepstation ,at Rakaia. One of the women had apparently taken his fancy more than the other, and he had induced her to become his promised wife. During the period of their acquaintance h>> had obtained about £ls from her. Tho accused persuaded her to accompany him to Lyttelton and live with him as his wife for several days, on the understanding that they were to be married in Chnstchurch on Wednesday. Before that day arrived the accused sent the woman back to her home, in Christchurch, and on Tuesday he wrote to her that his mother was dying in Wellington. That was a lie. The day before the marriage was to have taken place he had packed up all the articles he had fraudulently obtained and booked a. passage to Wellington vuider the name of Wilson, but ho was arrested by Detective. M'Lcod. Tho accused was a married man, andhis wife was living apart from him. Tho story told by him to the two women was a pack of lies, and the most, scandalous fraud by which women had been victimised. . While living in Ly;:teltan he had interviewed a business man of the town and engaged bint to renovate his residence at Rakaia, and at the same timo had obtained money from him by fraud. Ho had cast both the women adrift, for ho bad had no intension of returning from Wellington, and ono of thorn was at present -seriously ill.

Tile Magistrate said that the accused was not entitled to any leniency, fie appeared to have treated the wo'ii'U! scandalously. The case was not one to be met by a fine, and he would unptse a sentence--of six months-' imprisonment with bard labour on each charge, tlie sentences to run concurrently.