The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-14 00:00:00

GREENWICH: EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE OF
OBTAINING BILLS OF EXCHANGE BY FRAUD.--
Philip Litoun, 22, a German, described as a general
dealer, of 4, Gloucester-terrace, Gloucester-road,
Upper Grange-road, Bermondsey, was placed in
the dock, before Mr. Traill, charged with fraudu-
lently obtaining two £5O bills of exchange and two
similar bills for £75 each, from Messrs. Maugham
Brothers, scrap ironworks, Greenwich.
Mr. Lewis appeared for the prisoner.
Henry Maugham said—l am in partnership with
my brother Wm. Alfred Maugham, as manufacturers
of scrap iron. Th© prisoner has been in the habit
of purchasing old iron for us, and about a fortnight
since he came to our works and said he had had a
cheap lot of scrap iron offered him, at £3 per ton,
which he was willing to let us have at an advance
of ss. per ton as his profit. We agreed to make the
purchase, and on Monday last he again called upon
us at our works, and, saying he had paid a deposit
of £4O on the iron, asked us to give two bills of
£5O, at one month's date, we promising to let him
have the balance in cash in a few days. We gave
him those two bills on that day. The bills were
drawn by the prisoner and accepted by me. He
came again on Friday last, and produced a receipt
for £l4O, which went to show that amount had
been paid on account of the iron, the descriptions
of iron being set forth, and that the £4O deposit
would be forfeited unless the balance was paid in
10 or 12 days, lam ni;+ sure which. I told him he
had better look up on Mo2day for £lOO, but ulti-
mately he said that two bills to: £75 each at short
dates would settle the matter at conCe, and the iron
would be commenced to be delivered on Monday at
the rate of 20 tons per day. We gave him those bills
on Friday, he undertaking to bring a receipt 1,7 full
on the evening of that day. The receipt he produced
for £l4O had the signature of " Blyth" as a sur-
name, but I do not recollect what Christian name
it bore. There was no address, but he said the
person of whom he bought the iron lived in East-
street, Walworth,:and was his schoolfellow—they
came to England in the same ship from Germany
together. After we had parted with the bills I
feared we had not acted altogether regularly, and
sent my clerk in the evening to make inquiries at
East-street, Walworth. I saw the clerk on the
following morning, and he told me no such person
as Blyth was known at the address given. The
prisoner did not bring the promised receipt in full
on the Friday evening nor on the Saturday morn-
ing, but my brother met him in London on Satur-
day, and threatened to give him into custody unless
he took him to the person to whom he had paid the
£l4O, or returned their bills. My brother took him
to the Jerusalem Coffee-house, City, where I met
them, and the prisoner said he would satisfy us all
was right, and indved me to go with him a few
yards, where he had left a pony and chaise, promis-
ing us,we should,' have the last two £75 bills back,
saying': some one in the Mile-end-road held them,
and that he would take me to his own wharf and
let me have goods to the value of the first two bills
of £5O each. The prisoner met some acquaintance
on the way, and they walked together a few yards
before me, when I met a person who I thought
knew something of the prisoner, and while making
some inquiries of this person in Cannon-street,
City, the prisoner and his acquaintance suddenly
dived down through some doorway, and I lost sight
of them, remaining nearly two hours, but neither

of them returned. -
By Mr. Traill_At the time he asked for the two
£5O bills he described the quantities to be pur-
chased, viz., 20 tons of tires, 20 tons of lump iron,
and 40 tons of horse shoes and stubs (nails), about
25 tons being horse shoes, and more valuable than
the nails. He also gave us the name of "Blyth"
as the person of whom he was to obtain the iron,
but did not give us his place of residence, saying he
did not live very far off, and he did not wish to
in-
troduce us direct to his connexion.
By Mr. Lewis—We have not had more than half-
a-dozen transactions with the prisoner. Perhaps
three or four of these have been bill transactions.
The prisoner has been the drawer of those bills, but
he is not liable to pay more than one, and that not
of a greater amount than £5O. The purchase of
iron which forms the subject of the present charge
WaS not to have been a ready-money transaction.
We gave him the two £5O bills to discounted,getdebe
tt
better
and to pay for the iron. When he product d the re-
ceipts for the £l4O, be told us he bad tna
use of the two £5O bills than discounting them, as
he had paid them away to a Mr. Bowles lor lead,
and had sold the lead, the proceeds of which he had
paid away in cash on account of the scrap iron. He
did not communicate with m previously to negoti-
ating ther iroli
ewase a
meworanduin given
autsinbgy tthboes bills.
e prisonerbl. s
that would be delivered
at our works between thea6 th and 18th inst. The
,titon. He suggested £l5O,
d to the mouth of etwo £75 bills were anted
we should
Sep-
tember at prisoner's sugges
and knowing not be over-paying him the