VICTIM COMPENSATED

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 940, 9 December 1933, Page 1

VICTIM COMPENSATED

Confidence Man Ready to Refund Money. LONDON, December 1. A most unusual course was taken in the Police Court, when William Young, fifty-nine years of age, estate agent, said to be an Australian, was charged with being one of three men who obtained £2UOO from a Rhodesian engineer, William Merrilees, by a confidence trick. Young’s counsel said that if the Magistrate would try the case Young would plead guilty, and his friends would pay Merrilees £750, which was far more than Young had received as his share. The police prosecutor said that Young came to England from Australia lour years ago, and was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment in 1930 for attempting a £3OOO confidence trick. The 'Magistrate remarked that the present was an elaborate fraud, and that if Young were sent for trial he might receive a long term. lie sentenced him to six months in the second division. was alleged that Young posed as an Australian sheep farmer, and " casually ” made the acquaintance of Merrilees, a Rhodesian engineer, in Hyde Park. The 44 discovery ” that he had lost his pocket book on a seat led to a meeting with a third party, who unfolded a plan for share dealing, with huge profits. When he was invited to share in the transaction, Merrilees deposited £2OOO to prove his bona fides.*