The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-11-01 00:00:00

AN EXTRAORDINARY CAREER.

At th Cuntral l'iltninal Contd., th L rn, n, Char/es 1,
• respectable-looking durg man, pleaded guilty t, a cnargn
of fdrigng an 01 .1, for pa) most of £1,900. lls h.d plea,
Aunty at the last scullion is an fri,.;c.rueut witch charged
hp. with Pi. ng • dlivaMllo securthes to. h.rge moue% the
propeit) of his employers.
Mr. at,ei., eas L strueted to prosecute ; and Mr.
If ootog to Wdliams pea1...1 on behalf of tric prisoner.

- -
The risoner was in ths employmect of Messrs.
Phillips and Co., foreign merchant,, in Tower street,
London, and he was aslle-1 a junior clerk, but hit real
priention was that fan erran I boy, and his wages were
eighteen ehiPi, gs a wt ek. He had a good character,
and considerable confidence was planed in him He
was frequently employed to take large fume of money
to the bankers of the prowecutors. About the 12th of
Joly he Mid in hie possession securitiee of different de-
scriptions belonging to his etmil liens to the amount of
over £3.100. Instead of paying in this am-nit, the
prisoner changed a great many of the securities into
he then abec iided. At this time he was pay•
tog• his addressee to a respectable young woman, and
he indu -ed her to go with Win upon the repeesentstion
that he was stout to bike her to his mother's house,
and as they were g dig along in the train he informed
her that he had committed a fi•rgery, and threatened
that he would destroy him•elf if she did not consent to
marry him, and he at the same time puller, a boitle
containing some liquid from his picket and waeheri
hie face an-I bands with it, which had the effeet of
turning his flesh to a copper *slow. 'the marriage
tirk place, and immediately afterwards the prisoner
disguised himself in a most extraordinary manner. He
nyslop-d his nen* with an Indian shawl, put on
col unsl spectacles, patent leather hoots, and epure,and
gate out that he wee Captain Macgregor, of the In HAD
army; and thus equipped he went with his bride to
the shops of different jewellers in London, and aso at
Richmond, Kensington, and other places, and expended
nearly the whole of the money h• had tisappropriateil
n the piled:lase of costly- articles of jewellery, and
when the matter was disisivererl, and the prisoner was
taken i. to custody at tie lodgings he occupied with his
wife at Richmond, the latter bad jewellery actoallv
u on her person for which the prisoner had paid £1,500.
wit of this jewellery was, of course, taken pose
11,41inEl of by the police. but it appeared from a state.
moot made by Mr. Straight that a sum of between
1;600 and £7OO waft still unaccounted for. _

Mr. Montagu Williams, upon Mem facto, said that
all he could urge on behalf of the prisoner was that he
was very young, that his wages were very small, and
that he was pieced in • pooition of great temptation.
He could also inform the Court that Me young women
to whom the prisoner wise married did not desire to
pre.. any complaint against him.
The Recorder paid he thought that under the eh,
cumetances it would be bettor tor him to pootpone the
sentence, in order to afford the prisoner an opportunity
of giving information with regard to Me money that
we. still unaccounted for. _ _

An applicati in was then made on behalf of the pro-
secuti.m that the various jawellere should refund the
money they had received from the prisoner upon the
articles purchased being handed trek t) them.
Mx. Toms, a jeweller at Knightsbridge, Irma whom
the greater portion of the jewellery had been übtaine I,
objeet.,l to this course berg taken, and raid that the
articles he acid were worth the price charged. It was
regular bliaineas transaction, and he did not lee why
he ahonlcl return the money.
l'he Recorder remarked that if the genie were no
valuable he could not see what objection there was tc
taking them back.
After further discuation Mr. Tome consented to re.
store the money upon the understanding that if any of
the j nwellery was deteriorated mc we corn petumtiou shvuld
be given to him f ir the lore he might sustain.

Oa Tuesday the Recorder puled sentence, but be-
fore loiog so—exercising a power conferred by Act f
Parliament made an order—eubject to an affidavit by
Mr. Wontner, the eohcitor to the prosecution—on the
Rank of Ragland to deliver up two bank-noes for
£5OO each, a bank note for k 3.10, and one for £2llO to
the prosecutors. He also directed the police to hand
ov.r all the jewe'lery four din the poesessiou of the pri-
soner, with the exception of that pnrchased from Mr.
Toms, of Ken iagton, which was to be restored to Mr.
Tome, eta ing at the same time £5 was to go towards
the COOS of the prosecution.
The Recorder, in paseing sentence, said it was • very
bad case, and we. still farther aggravated by the pri-
soner not having made all the atonement in hie power.
It was, moreover, quite clear the,: a large sum was
beffig kept baklc by some one with a view to his
eventual pr. fit, from the fratids he bad committed.
The sentence was that he be kept in penal servitude
for seven years.