GREEK'S DELUSIONS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19546, 7 April 1926, Page 12

GREEK'S DELUSIONS

AN EFFECT OF MALAEIA DEFENCE OF THEFT CHARGE Kleptomania, phycho-analysis, and hallucinations, have all been pressed into service in the defence of prisoners, but counsel in a case at the Old Bailey recently found a new kind of defence. He urged that a Greek, who had stolen £2700 worth of securities, was “in a sort of phantasmagoria,” as the result of fever contracted on tho West Coast of Africa, and did not know what he was doing.

In the dock was Andrew d’Androcopulos, 32, described as a broker, who pleaded guilty to breaking into the office of Messrs Ironmonger and Co., brokers and foreign bankers, of Angel Court, City. He went to England in 1911, and was employed by a firm of merchants in Manchester. They sent him out to represent them in Sierra Leone, where he spent 14 years. He returned to England and carried on a small business as an outside broker. In this way he became acquainted with Messrs Ironmonger and Co. He started borrowing money from one of the partners, but this gentleman got tired of advancing hirii money, and on November 21 had him cleared out of the office. The next day their office was broken into and bonds and securities of the face value of £2700 were stolen. The thief could not be traced, until it was found that some of the bonds had been cashed for £3O in Paris by accused. He was arrested on December 23, and then told the police that he had obtained these bonds from a young lady he did not know, and whom he had met on the express going to Paris. He further stated that he had burnt some of the securities in a Paris hotel q.nd had thrown the rest into the Seine. He also made a statement that a member of the firm, Mr. Franks, had given him three packets of securities in a catering shop, and had asked him to negotiate them in Paris. He declared that he afterwards handed 80,000 francs to Mr. Franks and received £JO for his trouble. At the trial he admitted that this statement was false from beginning to end, and he expressed deep contrition, and apologised to Mr. Franks for having made it. So far as could be ascertained, he had only cashed £3O worth of the bonds he had stolen, and the police were of opinion that his theft was the outcome of spite. His counsel, Mr. Barnett, pointed out that the West Coast of Africa had been called the “white man’s grave.’’ It was a fact that during his 14 years in that country accused had suffered so much from fevers and malaria that his blood was thinned down, and this lessened the will-power. On his return to England in 1924, he had consulted a well-known specialist in Wimpole Street, who had discovered that he was in a condition which rendered him abnormal. His own story was that he was locked in the offices of Messrs Ironmonger, and that when he found himself alone with the valuable securities he lost his normal control and yielded to the temptation. He did not know what he was doing. “There was a sort of phantasmagoria,’’ and he took the things and went to Paris. Not until he had changed £3O worth of the bonds did he realise that he had committed a crime. He then burned some of the securities and threw the others into the Seine. He decided to face the music, but had another relapse and made statements that were lies in order to shield himself. Judge Atherley-Jones, K.C., declined to accept the phantasmagoria defence. “In my view.’’ he commented, “this crime was designed, and subsequent events show that it was not a passing emotion of your mind resulting from ill-health or mental disturbance, as suggested by your counsel. I cannot accept that contention, because your ill-health relates to 1924. You aggravated your offence by making an absolutely unfounded and cruel charge against an innocent person. You must go to prison fer ninc-months in the second division. ’ ’