SWINDLED OUT OF A FORTUNE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 46, Issue 14111, 3 May 1920, Page 2

SWINDLED OUT OF A FORTUNE.

HOW WEALTH IS OBTAINED BY FRAUD. Reference to the hoax perpetrated on a Farnborougk gentleman on whose wedding day an announcement of his ••deatti” was inserted in a local paper by a wag, led ai correspondent of Ihe “Weekly Record” to probe into the records of some of the more serious forms of hoaxing which have been exposed from time to time. As a rule money has been the chief motive for these frauds, and wonderful indeed is the ingenuity revealed in the accounts of the various known cases. Easily the greatest hoax of the present age originated in Paris —the notorious Hu mbe rt-Orawford will swindle, which involved a sum of nearly four millions sterling. It occurred only a few years ago, and neither before nor since has there been a case in yhicli even one-fourth of the amount was fraudulently obtained by one person. Nevertheless, Madame Humbert is by so ineass the first person to borrow large amounts of money from non-exis-tent securities. Quite recently a London engineer succeeded in getting away with over £50,000, all borrowed upon four houses, which were worth together less than a tenth of that amount. His scheme was as follows: — The properties this engineer acquired were i.u Hertfordshire. Now Hertfordshire was not a registered county, and consequently the registration of mortgages was not practised. The swindler began by insuring his house against fire in forty different offices. Then he went to various firms of solicitors in the city and began to raise money on mortgages, using the insurance policies as guarantees. On each house he raised about a dozen mortgages, and so contrived to swindle the solicitors in question out of the amounts mentioned.

The suspicions of one of the lire insurance companies involved were raised, and in consequence a warrant was issued for the arrest of the swindler. When the detective-officer called, the engineer received him most affably, explained that he was just engaging a new cook, and asked the gentleman to take a seat in the drawing room, where he would join him in a moment The officer stepped into the room, snap went the key in the lock, and long before the detective could break out..the swindler had disappeared. Again, but a brief while since, the Bankers’ Association unearthed a colossal fraud. When articles are delivered at the docks, warrants are granted by the dock authorities, acknowledging their receipt and describing the goods. As it is hot always convenient for the eases to be removed or unpacked at the time, it had been the custom of many banks to lend money upon the dock warrants. ,

Here' was a splendid chance for the ■ scheming swindler! A sort of swindling company was formed. Its members chartered a ship and delivered at the London docks a quantity of minerals, corn and jute, including some tons of concentrated gold ore. Quite unsuspecting, the authorities granted warrants, aceordisg to the descripfc tions of the cases. Armed with these the ’shippers made a round of the banks and borrowed several thousand Elated with their success, they tried again, and eventually succeeded in obtaining searlv a quarter of a million of money. But one day one of the oases marked “concentrated gcjld ore" was accidentally smashed, and out poured a stream of common sea-sand. So the great hoax came to an end, but not until it had lasted for nearly four

| years. j Another woman who rivalled the fa- ' inons Madame Humbert in ingenuity and impudence was .lane Hammond, l who. a short time ago, entered the service of two elderly and well-to-do sis- | ters named Bertram. She succeeded in I gaining their confidence completely, I and then one day told them an amazing j store of a rich relative of theirs who , had recently died in Trinidad, leaving them nearly a million and a half of money." Hammond then proceeded to obtain from her mistresses a number of blank signatures, ‘‘in order that she might correspond with the Trinidad authorities.’* Using these, she drew small sums of money from the bank account of the old ladies; and then, growing bolder, persuaded them that there was a plot afoot to lock them up as luna- ; tics by people who wished to obtain the Trinidad fortune. She worked upon their feelings until, half-mad with fear, the two secluded themselves in an out-of-the-way village in France. There the woman left on some excuse and hurried to London. When, a few days later, the elder Miss Bertram wished to draw some money, her bankers informed her that of her fortune of £.‘11,000 there remained tenpence.