AUTHOR IN BOX.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20330, 13 June 1934, Page 5

AUTHOR IN BOX.

Noel Coward’s Name Used by Woman. ALLEGATION OF FRAUD. (Special to the “Star." LONDON, May S. A remarkable story of an alleged fraud by a woman who claimed to have been married by special license to Mr. Jack Buchanan in a nursing home, and to be a cousin of Mr. Jack Huibert, and an intimate friend of Mr. Noel f'ownrd. was told at Bow Street Police Court. The accused woman, Doris Burton, 31, a secretary, of Mile End Road, Bow, was charged before Mr. Fry with .obtaining sums amounting to £9O by false pretences from Mr. Walter Thomas Bozzett, with fraudulently converting part of the money received by her for the purpose of delivering to Mr. Jack Buchanan and Mr. Noel Coward, and with forging Mr. Buchanan’s signature. Mr. Frank Powell, prosecuting, said Burton got to know Mr. and Mrs. Bozzett nearly two years ago. She told them that she was an intimate friend of Mr. Jack Buchanan and Mr. Noel Coward, and was in a position to obtain employment in a secretarial capacity for both Mr. and Mrs. Bozzett. Later she represented that she was authorised to receive money t 6 hand over to Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Coward for investment in films and plays. Mr. Coward’s Evidence. Mr. Noel Coward, the actor and dramatist, of Gerald Road, S.W., gave evidence that he had never authorised Burton to receive money on his behalf, and had never received money from her for the Bozzetts. On March 20 last, he said, Burton called at his house and said that she wished to apologise for the inconvenience she had caused him. By that time he had heard something about her. When he questioned her she said, “I did it at first as a joke and then wanted to believe it was true.” He told her that it was a poor sense of humour to enjoy obtaining money from poor people, and she assured him that she had given the whole of the money back. He then said

flia't me matter was in the Hanas or his solicitors, and that it was too late to apologise, and she left. Mr. H. Malcolm Lynde (defending): What was the joke supposed to be?—l can’t imagine. I gather that the joke referred to all those people to whom} she represented herself as my sister, j When she apologised did she seem distressed? —No, she seemed rather gay.‘ It was a nervous gaiety. My impression was that she was scared, and that she was passing it off in rather a gay manner. I A remaiTd was ordered. The magistrate said he had received a medical report from the prison doctor, and he thought it would be in BurtonV interests not to allow her bait