DEFRAUDED BY FORGER

Waipawa Mail, Volume LII, Issue 44, 24 December 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

DEFRAUDED BY FORGER

BOGUS MAJOR’S CRIMES THIRTY-NINE OFFENCES SECOND IMPRISONMENT TERM Stated to have posed as a D.S.O. and an M.C., Gerald Rogers, aged 40, a chemist by occupation, described as a man of mystery, was sentenced to 1* months’ imprisonment at the Old Bailey, London, recently for obtaining nearly £SOO by means of forged money orders. Rogers carried his frauds in nil parts of the country, being arrested eventually in Scotland, where he was slaying at an hotel as u “major." Sentenced in Glasgow for his Scottish of fences, he was arrested at the prison gates at the end of his term, and put on trial for his crimes in England. It was revealed that he had invented an ink which could not be erased, and his experiments apparently enabled him to remove ink on money orders and so commit his forgeries. Of athletic build and wearing « smart brown suit, from the breastpocket of which hung a handkerchief to match, Rogers pleaded guilty to 39 different cases.

Mr Forster Boulton, prosecuting for the Post Office, explained that Rogers’ plan was to get a money order for a small amount, rub out the strokes in lire pound column, ami write in a number of pounds. The forged order would then be cashed by a tradesman on some plausible story by prisoner. Nine Months In Gaol After several months Rogers was bowled out in Glasgow, and sentenced at the Sheriff Court to nine months’ imprisonment. He asked for his forgeries in England to be taken into account, but this, the Scottish Court would not do. The forgeries, added, counsel, were remarkably clever. Detective-Sergeant peacock, attached to the Post Office, stated that the real name of Rogers was Stanley Flack. When he wan IS he joined the Navy, but deserted and went to Canada. At the outbreak of war lie gave himself up ns a deserter, and served on a destroyer during 1914-15. Later, he served in the Engineers. He never got beyond the rank of corporal. After the war Rogers was with the Ministry of Food for a time, and then went into the motor business, and, according to his own statement, made a small fortune. About this time he was sent to prison for a month at St. Albans for obtaining petrol by false pretences. Following another visit to Canada, Rogers invented an ink which, he said, could not be erased. Ho started a business at Nottingham and obtained a con sidcrablc number of orders. Many of his customers were defrauded by his forged money orders. Rogers, from the dock, declared that he did not know his English offences had not, been taken into consideration until shortly before his release from gaol. “1 was told I should bo rearrested when I came out of tho gates,” lie protested. “But I did not know what for. My nine months’ imprisonment has taught me a big lesson. I run heartily sorry; 1 did not quite realiso the ramifications of what I was doing. Now', in all humility, I throw myself on the mercy of the Court.” Education and Culture. Passing sentence, the Recorder, Rir Ernest Wild, K.C., observed that Rogers was obviously a man of education and culture. Being connected with the ink business he thought he could turn his penmanship to his own advantage, and lie had done so. He had certainly been catholic in his geography, for he had committed his frauds in all parts ot England, ns well as in Scotland. It had been laid down repeatedly in England, said the judge, that a man should have a clean sheet on coming out of prison wherever possible. The Scottish Courts did i»'J* take this view, but it was not for him, said Rir Ernest, to criticise the procedure of another great country. In the ordinary way he would have passed a sentence of three years’ penal servitude, but as Rogers had already served nine months, he would pass a sentence of 18 months. When Rogers was before the Scottish Court it was revealed that he had posed as “Lieutenant-Colonel Rogers, D.K.0., M.C.," and at his arrest he was living in a Glasgow hotel ns Major Flack He then maintained that he was not Rogers but cards were found in his possession on which was printed, “LieutenantColonel Rogers, D. 5.0., M.C., Dublin and Vancouver, 8.C., Canada."