The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-03 00:00:00

BE.LIZTLEBS DECEPTION.

At the Westminster Police-court, yesterday,
Thomas Dexter, a young man about thirty, was
charged with obtaining £7 and a brooch, under the
following circumstances :
In August last a servant girl, named Jane Win-
scott, made the acquaintance of the prisoner, who
represented himself to be a single man, and they
shortly afterwards kept company together, and
were to have been married on Tuesday last. Three
weeks ago he obtained a brooch from her under the
pretence of havinf, it tried, and pawned it as it
turned out the next day, and on Friday last he ob-
tained £7 from her, saying he was about to furnish
their lodgings ready for their marriage. The next
day, however, she found out that he was married,
and gave him into custody.
In cross examination by Mr. Lewis, sen., prose-
cutrix said the prisoner had bought the furniture
, and she had seen it.

Mr. Lewis said it had been hinted that prose-
cutrix was in the family-way, and asked whether
such was the case.

Prosecutrix, after much evident reluctance, said
she was in that state.

Mr. Arnold asked by whom.

Prosecutrix replied by the prisoner.
Mr. Tarlton, an inspector of the V division, here
produced the certificate of prisoner's marriage, and
the notice of the banns having been put up by the
prisoner for his marriage with prosecutrix, at
Trinity Church, St. Marylebone.
In answer to questions from the magistrate, pro-
secutrix said prisoner told her he had put up the
banns, and the notice produced was what he had
shqwn her.

Edwards, 241 A, having proved comparing the
certificate with the parish register at St. Pancras
Church, and finding it correct,
John Bond said on Feb. 28, 1852, he was present
at St. Pancras Church, at the marriage of Mary
Ann Mortimer and Thomas Dexter (te prisoner).
The wife was alive, and now present in court.
Mr. Lewis urged that although prisoner's conduct
showed great immorality, there was no legal guilt,
as the mere fact of his saying " I am a single man,"
if he did not intend to defraud prosecutrix, would
not affect him. The question was, for what purpose
was the money given to him ? For the purpose of
purchasing furniture, and his worship might add
for the consummation of a marriage, and his (Mr.
Lewis's) answer to this was that there could be no
case of false pretence, as the furniture had actually
been purchased, and was at the prosecutrix's ser-
vice at any moment, and the mere fact of prisoner
saying, " I will marry you," had no reference to
time, and might mean when his wife died, or any-
thing else. After some further remarks, Mr. Lewis
said it would be much better for the prisoner to be
discharged, and for the prosecutrix to seek her
remedy another way, than for her, under the dis-
tressing circumstances of the case, to go before
another tribunal and have no other resource left
her.

Mr. Arnold looked at the matter in this light.
The prisoner had said he was a single man, and had
obtained the £7 to purchase goods for the use of
himself and prosecutrix, when married, represent-
ing himself, therefore, as able to do what, in law,
he had not the power of doing, viz., to marry
the prosecutrix, and there was no doubt that she
would not have entrusted him with the money
had she known he was not in a position to fulfil his
promise. Mr. Lewis's remarks, however, were well
worthy of consideration, although not before him,
and he should, therefore, send the case to the Cen-
tral Criminal Court, where it might be more fully
discussed than at the sessions, and meantime should
remand the prisoner again for the depositions to be
made out.

Mr. Lewis suggested the propriety of the magis-
trates accepting bail.
Mr. Arnold said he certainly should not take bail.
The charge as to the brooch was withdrawn.

EXTENSIVE ROBBERIES AND CAP-

TURE OF THE BURGLAR.

A rather successful and extensive series of rob-
beries from warehouses in Glasgow have been
brought to light within the last few days, and about
£1,500 worth of goods recovered, by the energetic
labours of our detective police. For some years back
complaints have repeatedly reached the police of
various quantities of valuable property having been
missed in some of the large warehouses in the city,
the proprietors being quite unable to give the
slightest explanation of the means adopted in the
abstraction of the goods. The premises were locked
up safely at night, and in the morning they were
found as safely fastened. The interior of the pre-
mises was quite in order in the morning, but a por-
tion of the property they contained was missing, and
until very recently, the utmost efforts of the police
failed to discover any trace of the stolen goods, or a
clue to the thief. One day last week, however, a
man left some alpaca cloth at the warehouse of
Messrs. Wilson and Matheson, in Glassford-street,
desiring it to be made into covers for umbrellas.
There it was suspected that the alpaca was similar
to that usually kept by Mr. Wm. Fyfe, 52, Glass-
ford-street, and accordingly he was communicated
with. Mr. Fyfe at once identified the alpaca as a
portion of that stolen from his premises on the 14th
Feb., 1859, on which occasion he lost £75 worth of
goods in the mysterious manner above described.
He apprised the police of the fact, and they traced
out the man who had left the cloth to be a person
named Houston, residing in Jackson-street, who said
he had got it from William Wallace, haberdasher,
Bo'ness. On the 18th ult. detective Brown was de-
spatched to Bo'ness, and apprehended Wallace, in
whom he discovered an old friend—one who had been
transported, in 1851, for housebreaking in Glasgow.
He denied all knowledge of the alpaca ; but as the
most of Mr. Fyfe's stolen goods were found in his
premises, his denial was received with caution, and
he has since been remitted to prison to await the
judgment of the Justiciary Court, on a charge of
housebreaking and robbery, or reset of theft, Be-
sides Mr. Fyfe's property Brown brought with him
from Bo'ness two pieces of woollen cloth which he
believed had been stolen. These he discovered had
been taken from two bales which had been left for
a short time in Brunswick-street on the 19th March
last, and belonged to Mr. R. B. Clark. Another
visit was paid, when several watches were found,
and one of these was identified as having been
stolen, along with others, from the premises of
Messrs. Watson and Poddzie, working jewellers,
Trongate, on the 17th or 18th of August, 1856, A
visit to Wallace's shop in Bo'ness has since been
made by Brown, and has resulted in his gutting the
place and bringing a waggon load of all kinds of
drapery goods to Glasgow, so that for a day or two
last week the rooms of the detective department of
the police were more like a draper's warehouse than
a police-office. This seizure has led to the discovery
of several robberies, one of the most extensive of
firm
which was unknown to the partners of the .rm
until their goods were shown to them in the police-
office. The firm referred to is that of Messrs. Hut-
ton and Baird, warehousemen, Union-street, of
although
touhgadh
they were sensible that some of
whose property between £3OO and £4OO worth was
found in Wallace's premises, and which they were
not aware of having lost until
tnhoewi;
goods
The
warehouse going amissing f
but in what way
they or
the last two years,
had idea. Ilre
Gay and M‘Ktnlay, silk
bandana manufacturers, Mitchell-street, was
broken into in May, 1859, and 62 pieces of silk
handkerchiefs of the value of £4O, stolen. The
greater part of that property was found in .13o'ness ;
as well as webs of doeskin, Sze., to about the same
value, belonging to Mr. James M`liechnie, manu-
facturer, Wilson-street, and which had been stolen
on various nights in November, December, and
March last. The premises of Mr. Taylor, uphol-
sterer, Buchanan-street, were entered on the night
of the 3d of May, 1859, and two carpets, two pieces
of damask cloth, and a looking-glass stolen. Ali
these things, 'with the exception of A.
one carpet,r

were found in Wallaces house. Near his house
were also found a bunch of okeleten kt lys, a dark
lantern, and several files, which no doubt were
used in the raids he made into Wasgow, for nearly
all the doors of the warehouses above ,mentioned
can be opened by these keys.—/ Vora Drit:Bll Daily
Mail.