Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-24 00:00:00

A FAMILY OF SWINDLERS.

John Jones, alias smith, alias Williams!, 55, Harriet
Jones, 47, Ann Jones, 22, and John Lewis Jones, 17, son
and daughter of the two first-named prisoners, were in-
dicted for obtaining a quantity of goods from various
tradesmen at Rotherhithe and Croydon under false pre-
tences. The prisoners were also indicted fJr stealing
several corn sacks, in which some of the property was
obtained. From the evidence given, it appeared that the
prisoners had, for years past, resided in almost every towa
of the metropolis and adjoining villages, occupying fashion-
able residences, and carrying on a most extensive system
of plunder. Their mode of operation was for the son to be
dressed as a groom, representing his father as his master,
and a gentleman possessed of large landed estates in Wales,
and driving a pair of horses. The mother and daughter
were also in the habit of passing and appearing as ser-
vants, when occasion served. Among the towns so visited
was Croydon, where the prisoners occupied two estab-
blishments at one time, in different names, victimising every
class of tradesmen, and suddenly taking their departure.
Mr. Russell, corn merchani., of Croydon, Mr. Batchelor,
corn dealer, of Croydon, and Miss Parsons, of Morden,
Surrey, having given evidence in support of the above
statement. Police-constable J. W. Crouch, 118 R, de-
posed that in company with Brown, 98 R, he went to the
Duke of Kent public house, Old Kent Road, and there
apprehended the prisoners. On telling the elder male
prisoner that they were charged with obtaining goods under
false pretences, he replied, " Then I am your prisoner now,
not Brown's ?" and asked him if he had a warrant for his
apprehension. Witness then told the daughter she would
have to go to the station with him, on which she said,
"Don't handle me, sir; I know nothing of these people,
and never saw them before in my life;" the father also
remarking, " What do you want touch that young woman
foi ? what I have had is only a debt." The Chairman
having gone through the evidence, the jury, without hesita-
tion, returned a verdict of guilty against the whole of the pri-
soners. Police-constable Brown,9B R,here informed the court
that the prisoners had undergone repeated examinations
before Mr. Trail, the Greenwich police magistrate, on
each of which occasions the court had been thronged by
tradesmen for miles in and around the metropolis. Wit-
ness believed that the prisoners had for years been engaged
in a regular system of plunder. He herd in his hand bills
from a few tradesmen, of whom the prisoners had obtained
goods amounting to upwards of £lOO, and there would be
no difficulty in collecting bills which would exceed
£3,000 in amount. On searching the prisoners' residence
at Garrod-lane, Wandsworth, witness discovered no less
than 14 sacks belonging to different persons from whom
corn had been obtained. The chairman said it was a
lamentable thing to see the elder prisoners
.brnging up
their children to such a dishonest mode of living. They
were of sufficient age, however, to know they were doing
wrong, The court would not be doing justice to the
public, if it did not pass a sentence which would keep him
(the father) from plundering tradesmen for some time to
come, and the sentence was,
that
he be kept in penal ser-
vitude for six years. The other prisoners were then een.
tenced to six months' hard labour.