SENT TO GAOL.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 279, 24 November 1931, Page 6

SENT TO GAOL.

Draper Claimed to be Brother of Marquis. THE CLANDEBOYE ESTATES Because he claimed to be a brother of the Marquis of Dufferin and obtained money on that representation, William Biddolph Blackwood, described as a draper, aged sixty-seven years, formerly residing in Barbadoes Street, will serve twelve months’ imprisonment. This was the sentence imposed by Mr E. D. Mosley, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court this morning, when Blackwood was charged with obtaining £lO in one case,, and a steamer ticket valued at £4l in the second case, from Kate Bates, in both instances by falsely representing that he was a brother of the Marquis of Dufferin and had an interest in the Clandeboye estates. The accused pleaded guilty. £7OB 5s a Year. Chief-Detective Carroll said that in August last year Blackwood went to a house in Barbadoes Street and rented a room, paying 10s for the week in advance. He informed the occupier, Kate Bates, that he was a brother of the Marquis, who had been killed in an aeroplane accident, and that he would draw £7OB 5s a year from the estate. He stayed on for months, going, according to his story, to the bank frequently to see if the money had arrived. Finally he told Mrs Bates that he would have to go to Wellington and see Lord Bledisloe to see what he could do. Blackwood came back from Wellington and told Mrs Bates that Lord Bledisloe had too many similar requests and could do nothing about it. Then Mrs Bates provided him with a steamer ticket for England. Blackwood went to Wellington, and the first thing he did was to get a refund on, the ticket from the shipping office, and he spent the whole' of it. Told Tale Again.

Mrs Bates found that Blackwood had not left New Zealand and communicated with the police. He was arrested in Wellington, where he admitted making the representations and was remanded by the Court to appear in Christchurch. Blackwood admitted to the Chief-Detective that he had made the representations to Mrs Bates. While Blackwood was in Wellington, he told the same tale to another woman and was before the Court there also. He carried around with him as part of his stock-in-trade his pedigree in tabulated form and a number of cuttings from to help him on his way. Altogether Mrs Bates was about £l5O out of pocket over the deal. She had sent good money after bad in the hope of getting some return. •‘Some Connection.” Counsel for the defence stated that Blackwood had been in New Zealand since the Boer War and the pedigree found in his possession had been given to him by a Captain Marat who jokingly spoke of his being connected with the family of the Marquis of Dufferin. As a matter of fact Blackwood had heard his father refer to the fact that he was a cousin of the Marquis. “There may be some association,” said counsel, “ but he can’t prove he c is a brother or anything else connected with the family. He never believed the story himself and referred to the problematical relationship only when drinking.” It was hard to believe that Blackwood had lived at Mrs Bates’s home for over twelve months, and that for the whole of that time she believed he really meant what he said. On Drinking Bout. While in Wellington, Blackwood went on a drinking bout and was drinking as much as two quarts of brandy a day. “It should be quite obvious,” said counsel, “ that under those circumstances he was prepared to say he was the King of England.” Blackwood’s relatives in England might return the money if they were asked to do so. It was quite probable that there was someone who might help him. “He has been very fortunate,” said the Magistrate. “ Look at his career in Wellington. He is evidently a dangerous man in the habit of taking down confiding women.”