The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-12-15 00:00:00

EXTENSIVE FRAUD ON THE REVENUE.

Shortly after nine o'clock, on Friday night, as the watchman;
Hahne, was passing through Tithebarn-street, he discovered the;
door of a cellar belonging to a warehouse nearly opposite the
Exchange standing wide open. Having made his captain
(Bradford) acquainted with Lhe circumstance, the latter ascer-
tained, that a man, named Johnson, who resided in a court op-
posite the Foundry. in Vauxhall-road, was the warehouseman
of the building move. They immediately sent for him; but
before he could before he could he found upwards of two hours
had elapsed. When he arrived, he told Captain Bradford a long
story of the vault .having been let be Mr. Carson to a person
named either Black or Blake, he could not tell which ; and that
the latter was somehow connected with tome person who had
broody-vaults in Conceit-street. Bradford and he went td
Concert-street; but it betame evident that the statement had,
been made merely with the view of misleading. On their re-;
turn„ it being pa;t. one o'clock, they encountered Mr. Whittv'
the superintendant of the watch; on his rounds. He instantly
sent ,o Bridewell for a light, and Batcheldor, the governor of
that prison, soon arrived. with one. On entering the vault, they
discovered that it was nearly empty. A few empty casks were
dispersed about the floor, and in one corner they found a large
hogshead, full of rum. At the upper end of the vault, they
found a pump, made of leaden pipe, of some length. By fol-
lowing the direction which the pipe took, they *ere led to an
excavation in the floor, close to the farthest wall of the vault,
which decended for about a foot and a half, and then passed
horizontally through the wall. In the opposite corner _was
amother excavation, precisely similar. Through the first of these
however, the leaden pipe which had guided them waspassed. This
pipe was so constructed that it unscrewed, in two places, for the
purpose of answering as a syphon, a cock and suction-pipe lying
close to it, with a screw to answer the joints. At the upper end
they found a long hose of leather, of three-quarter inch diameter.
Mr. Whitiy tried those implements on the spot, and.tound that
they were all inororking trim. A further examination has
brought to light that the exeavaticus.above described commu-
nicate immediately (passing only under the party wall) With a
bonded vault (Gardner's), in George's-street. which is situated
at the back, and runs parallel with Tithebarn-street. It ap-
pears that these two vaults, the bonded and the one fronting.
Tifhebarn-street, haVe both been let for sonic time past to one
individual; and it is stated that he has employed the means
which will at once be obvious to every person, after a perusal
of the above particulars, to defraud the revenue to the amount
of upwards of .43)00. It seems that an immense quantity of
brandy, ruin, wine, &c., has been bonded in the George's-street
vault, and that a proportionate quantity of water has been in-
troduced into the cellar in Tithebarn-street. The leathern
hose has been employed to force the water out of the latter info
the former, while the long leaden pump CO feet long) has been
as actively employed in making a transfer of the spirits into
the free warehouse. The bonded vault is completely full of
rum puncheons, brandy pieces, and wine pipes, butts, hogs-
heads, &c., all tilled with water, while the more valuable com-
modity in the other cellar has all been removed in the vessels
in which the water was brought, with the single exception of
the cask of rum above mentioned. Messrs. Whitty and Bat-
chelder were so little satisfied with the vagite attempts at ex-
planation tendered by the warehousenian, wheM Captain Brad-
ford had sent for, that they deemed it expedient to hold him iii
custody. On Monday he was brought before the magistrates;
but there was no evidence against him, other than that he kept
the key of the eider door of the warehouse, for which he re-
ceived a small annual sum. Nothing. having transpire; show-
ing that the warehouseman had any knowlcidge of the robbery:
he was discharged.