AN ARTIST IN CRIME

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 293, 10 December 1929, Page 3

AN ARTIST IN CRIME

PASTIME AT DARTMOOR I FOUR FALSE BANK NOTES PRESENT TO THE GAOLER An astounding story of skilful and audacious forgeries on a wholesale scale is told by Mr Charles Carew in the Sunday Express. Alfred Borthwick, his real name was F. T. Palmer—served a sentence of five years’ penal servitude when quite young for forging a bank-note. He used a mapping pen and ordinary Indian ink, and passed his masterpiece on to an Irish cattle dealer, from whom he bought a cow, which he subsequently sold in the Gloucester auction mart. Borthwick was at liberty but some twelve months when h e was again sent to prison for forging bank-notes. They' were better this time. Four of them had been passed on Birmingham shopkeepers. While he was in prison on this occasion he made the acquaintance of Everard Bennett, an Oxford undergraduate, a member of a distinguished family, who was languishing at Dartmoor for forging a will to gain an estate. Th e scheme of his operations had been perfect, but the workmanship of his forgery had given him away. In Alfred Borthwick he recognised the master forger and great friendship sprang up between the two men. Expensive Joke with Prison Governor Whil e he wa s in prison on that occasion Borthwick gave a wonderful demonstration of his abilities. A prison conference was sitting in London at the time, and it was suggested that a model should be made of Dartmoor and of the interior of a cell. Borthwick executed a mode] so beautiful and so amazing that it was commented on with wonder by all the members of the conference and the then Home Secretary went to see him specially when he visited Dartmoor. Captain Temple, the governor, told a humorou s story ab<»ut that occasion. Just befor e h G left for London he sent for Borthwick to congratulate him and thank him. Borthwick, with a grin, said: “That’s all right, sir. Now you’ll need, a little ready money for expenses, sir. Just slip that in your pocket and have a drink with me!” The prisoner handed the governor four five-pound notes. Captain Temple was amazed. Then the joke downed on him. Borthwick had forged th e notes while h c was working on his model. All w aspcrfcct except the paper. But Borthwick’s good-natured little joke cost him three long years of imprisonment, beeaus e when Captain Temple proudly produced the handiwork of his protege, and also the bank-notes, the Home Secretary said:—“By Jove! I was going to have that chap’s sentence remitted in view of his wonderful work and give him another cha-nce. But his bank-note work is too wonderful! He’d better stay where h c is.” Towns “Drenched” in Stamps When a convict is released on licence hc i s kept under supervision of the police in varying degrees. If he is a known forger then a careful watch is kept to see any signs that may be ap-

I parent of his getting up to his old tricks again. Borthwick went to Birmingham, where his wife kept a lodging* house, and though the ponce watched fairly closely he seemed to b e earning I an honest living clerking. Then a most curious thing happened. For three or four weeks, every post offic e i n the Birmingham area reported a drop in the sale of postage stamps. The same weight of mails was being carried, but a tremendous fall in the sale of stamps was, clearly established. Moro amazing still, while th e post office s were selling few stamps, Birmingham and the surrounding towns were positively drenched in stamps. Mail order houses were getting considerable orders, all paid for in stamps. The women in th e streets were asking shopkeepers to accept stamps in lieu of money, and even the tramps were paying for their nightly doss in stamps! Samples of all the stamps wer e sent, to the General Post Office, and then on to Scotland Yard, and were there compared by experts. The experts all disagreed! It was now apparent that a forger of stupendous ability was at work, a nd the police knew perfectly well that ther e was only one man capable of work like this. Romance with a Pretty Girl Borthwick was kept under daily supervision. But he just went to the draper’s shop where he worked, and returned hom e again. One night the police raided his house—it was simply a perfectly respectable boarding house. Borthwick complained of persecution • to his local M.P.! Now, Borthwick made occasional journeys into th 0 country just outside Birmingham Hc had been followed there, and the police discovered that the object of his journeys was the pur- , suance of a romance with a pretty girl, the daughter of a small farmer This, of course, was not the business of the police, but one of the detectives engaged on the case thought that if any- ■ one knew the secret that girl must. So he addressed a letter as though if had been sent by a girl to Borthwick. The letter accused him of betraying her, and expressed gratitude that hc had promised to run off with her “as soon as al] the stamps are sold.” The letter also referred to the farmer’s daughter, of whom the writer had heard, as a little fool, who must be kept quiet until the time came for elopement. Now this wa s a simple country girl. The detective? gave her the letter, tolling her that he thought she ought to read it. The result was that she con--1 fessed that she had lent Borthwick the keys of an old mill on the farm where he and several others worked at some- • thing or other. Sh c felt as though the end of all things had come, and com- : pletcly betrayed her lover, whom she i thought false to her. i Arrest in the Old Mill. Two nights later Borthwick waited ' vainly for his girl, and then went to ’ the old mill, which was reached by a bridle path across some fields. He went inside, lit a shaded candle, opened a trap door, and descended sOm e stairs. Five minutes later hc and Everard > Bennett were arrested after a fierce ' struggle. l Remanded to await, assize, the two ;' swindler s were committed to prison ■ and in the mealtime the farmer’s

daughter felt some qualms of conscience. Who did not admit to her lover that sh e had betrayed him, but shc went to see him, and showed him the letter she had received. He expressed horror and indignation, and wanted to know haw such a letter had reached her. He ordered her to go to the address mentioned in the letter. She did—and found that she had been the victim of a “clever” ruse. Borthwick went to penal servitude ■ for five years, to be followed by five ■ years’ preventive detention —ten years j in all. The farmer’s daughter waited: for the detective, and aimed a blow at him with a sharp knife. A brass buckl c of a belt which he wore turned I th 0 point. She left him, and was found ■ next morning on the steps of the mill. She had no brass buckle to turn the point of the knife. The years passed away, ageing Borthwick, ageing Bennett, but not taking away from th e ability of the senior partner. Together they served their time at Dartmoor again, together they went to Camp Hill, in the Isl e of Wight. All through the ten years there they remained, planning, plotting, dreaming! Just before he left prison, a Commissioner of Prisons, visiting, sent for Borthwick, and talked tu him. “Borthwick,” hc said from his chair in the governor’s pleasantly furnished office. “What, are you—outside?” Standing at the other side of the desk, erect, at his full height of six feet four, his light brown crisp hair heavily streaked with white, hi s face deeply lined, stood Borthwick, a smile playing round his lips. “A forger!” the convict replied instantly. “Yes, yes, I know,’’ said the commissioner. “but what is your proper work? What, do you intend to do when you get out*” “May I ask you a question?” countered the convict. “Certainly,” said the commissioner.

“Can you, by any Act of Parliament' which was ever passed, by fair means! or by foul, keep me a singi c day be- ‘ yond the sixteenth of next month? Answer that!” Th e commissioner glanced at the record. “That is quite true,” he said, “There is no question of our keeping you—you w r ill be free. “Yes,” said Borthwick, bitterly. “The Act which governs preventive detention states that a man may be released after he has served a single year if he is of good conduct. 1 have been of exemplary conduct, and yet you haze kept me to the last day! And do you seriously think I am going to discuss my plans with you? My reply is ‘Go to hell! ’ ” That was the spirit in which Borthwick left Camp Hill Detention Prison. Very closely was he watched when he 1 returned to Birmingham. His wife wag still carrying on the boarding house. Borthwick remained exactly where he was for two months. He never attempted to work, never moved a hand. Then —he disappeared. Then a most startling thing happened. Scotland Yard was called in by the Bank of England to investigate a most alarming series of forgeries, apparently carried out on the Continent. A small merchant bank trading in the Aegean Sea ports passed through for clearance a posititve deluge of Bank of England notes. Altogether the notes totalled two hundred thousand pounds. The notes wcr e absolutely perfect, the numbering correct, according to current numbering, but the lettering was wrong.

The Bank of England has a system of lettering, and only two or three officials know exactly when the letters will be changed. It is customary to take the name of a statesman like “Gladstone.” Numbers 1 to 5000 may be prefixed ‘‘G”; 5001 to 7000 “L” etc. What wa s wrong with these notes

was *that the numbers were over-run- ! ning the period set to th c letters. | The process of detection was difficult, Greek and English detectives, the latter specially lent, investigated the case. Every town in Greec e was searched for possible suspects, and one of the English detectives thought hc had put his finger on th e matter when pne day he saw strolling along the water front at the Piraeus, awaiting a ship, none other than Alfred Borthwick. Borthwick was arrested in a flash, taken to the police station and immediately interrogated. He was excellently dressed. Also he was highly indignant. He demanded thc immediate presence of the British and Turkish Consuls—the British Consul becaus e he was a British subject, and Turki ' because h e was the agent of Mahmoud, Teufik and Company, of Constantinople, engravers and designers. After a visit from the Turkish Consul the 1 Greek chief of police refused to take any further responsibility; he humbly apologised and let Borthwick go.