WOMAN HELD ON FRAUD CHARGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17832, 28 April 1926, Page 9

WOMAN HELD ON FRAUD CHARGE.

SUSANNAH BEVAN MUST BE RETURNED TO ENGLAND INSURANCE CASE SEQUEL

After many remands, the case against Susannah Bevan, alias Trixie Finch, who was arrested at Glentui in February, was proceeded with in the Magistrate’s Court to-day. At the conclusion of the Evidence, it was ordered that the accused should be returned to England. The charge was that on or about June 24, 1922, at London, accused conspired to defraud the Prudential Insurance Company, Limited, London, of the sum of £2BBI 13s 6d.

Mr H. Y. Widdowson, S.M., was on the Bench, and ChiefDetective Gibson prosecuted. The accused was not represented by counsel.

It will be remembered that in 1922 some clothes were found on a. beach at Ilfracombe, Devon, and identified as those of Susannah Bevan. The Prudential Insurance Companj', Ltd., paid out the amount for which the woman was insured.

• Mary Moata Macdonald, residing in Bealey Avenue, said that she was in England in 1924. She made arrangements for a cook to be sent out, and the woman in Court arrived under the name Trixie Finch in April, 1925. She worked from April, 1925, to Decernbei with witness. She received £2 a week and her keep. The woman had luggage.

Detective A. Allen stated that on February 39 he was at Glentui in company with Chief-Detective Gibson. They arrested Trixie Finch. He took a list of her property in her possession, and also a list of property from a room at 107, Clarence Road. Riccarton. Part of that was not packed up. Accused at-first did not claim it. Included in the articles was a fur coat. When witness took her back the second time she claimed it.

Chief Detective Gibson, in evidence, stated that the accused was working in a kitchen or; Hayling Station, Glentui, on February 19. When asked if she were Trixie Finch she replied in the affirmative. Witness said that he had a provisional warrant for her arrest on a charge of conspiring to defraud. She said; ‘'Don't tell them in the house—l did not mean to defraud anyone; I have been nearly out of my mind.” At the police station she made a statement in which she denied intention to defraud anyone. She had not received the money and did not know who did. In the accused’s possession witness found a quantity of documents, including a letter from B. Grigg, a blank cheque on Lloyd’s Bank. Ltd., a receipt for two sums of £lO received from somebody, a waxed seal of a bank, a cutting from a newspaper giving the report of Court proceedings referring to the death of accused, an envelope containing receipts for registered letters, and a number of envelopes containing letters and documents with reference to insurance. Witness produced the original warrant issued in London, which read: ‘‘did unlawfully conspire with David Maldwyn Hughes Bevan and others by divers false pretences and subtle devices to obtain from the Prudential Insurance Company, Ltd-, £2BBI 13s 6d.” The warrant commanded that the woman be brought before the Bow Street Police Court, and attached were the depositions of witnesses taken in England. Witness asked that an order for accused's return to England be made. The evidence of a clerk of the company, taken in London, was to the effect that in July 22 the company was informed that Susannah Bevan had disappeared and was believed to have been drowned. Leave was given her solicitor, David Harries Bowen, to swear that her death had occurred on or since June 29, 1922. The sum of £2BBI 13s 6d was paid to Bowen as executor. On April 13, 1923, the sum of £-31 10s lOd was paid by the company to David Maldwyn Hughes Bevan in respect of the remainder of the policies on accused’s life. The movements of the accused, as made out by Detective-Inspector Cornelius, was read. It showed that in June. 1924. the accused was at the Girls’ Friends’ Society’s Lodge and registered as Trixie Finch. On June 30 instructions were given by David Bevan, accused’s son, and David Bowen, executor under the will of accused, that a search be made for her. That was done, but without result. The accused was in the service of several people, and she told one that she had lost her clothes travelling about. She told a Kathleen Thorp about some financial trouble a woman friend of hers was in. This woman had a little boy with her, whose mother was believed to have been drowned. Accused left for New Zealand on February 12, 1925. She obtained a free passage and gave her age as thirty-six, although she must have been fifty-six. Free passages for domestics were not given to anyone over forty. Letters had been received from New Zealand and the signatures compared with those on accused's policies. They were alike and there was reason to believe that they were those of accused. The order as asked for was made and accused will remain in Wellington Prison until her departure for England.