Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1893-10-28 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

FORGING NOBLEMEN'S SIGNATURES.  At the Central Criminal Court, on Friday, before the Recorder, Henry Holden, clerk, pleaded guilty to five indictments which charged him with forging and uttering five bills of xchange for £l,OOO each; and also to obtaining by Li Le pretences from Henry Joseph Garrett the sum of £5,000 with an intent to defraud.—Mr. C. F. Gill, who prosecuted, said that the charges to which the prisoner had pleaded guilty were of a veiy serious character. He was alleged to have forged and uttered bills of exchange, purporting to be drawn by Lord Lurgan and accepted by his brother-in-law, Lord Chelsea. in respect of which he bad obtained a sum of £5,8C0. The person from whom this large sum of money was obtained was a retired gentleman nano d Garrett. He made the acquaintance 01 the prisoner by an accident. Prisoner represented that he was a man in a good social position, and the son of a colonel in the Army, and he represented furtl er that he had acted as a commission agent for noblemen who were following turf pursuits. He made a proposal to Mr. Garrett that he should lend money to Loid Lurgan through him (Holden). A sum of money which was lent to the prisoner was repaid. Having thus established some confidence, the man then represented that Lord Lurgan was desirous of obtaining the sum of £3,000, and that Lord Lurgan would be willing to pay for the use of the money, £2,000, if payment was spread over five years; he also said that his lordship would give five bills for £l,OOO each, drawn by himself and accepted by his brother-in-law, Lord Chelsea. On the faith of these fraudulent representations Mr. Garrett made up £3,000, which he handed to the prisoner. Shortly afterwards the prisoner represented that Lord Luigan wished to borrow a further sum of £3,000 for a short time, and that he was willing to pay £3OO for this accommodation. Mr. Garrett then parted with a sum of £2,700. The prisoner gave five bills of exchange, tearing the forged signatures of Lord Lurgan and Lord Chelsea. Other negotiations were entered into, and, after an unsuccessful attempt to get all the bills back, the prisoncr disappeared. The matter was placed in the hands of the police, and a warrant was obtained,on which prisoner was subsequently arrested on his return from a race meeting.—Police-sergeant Alfred Ronan proved a previous conviction against prisoner.—Mr. Purcell, in mitigation, said the only explanation which he had to oner for the fraud was that the prisoner had been unfortunately tempted to gamble on the racecourse and on the Stock Exchange. Ile was a man who had had sews of money much larger than that mentioned in the charge pass through his hands, which had been obtained legitimately. He had a belief that he would have been able to repay Mr. Garrett, who had acted with every kindness to the prisoner, the money which he had obtained.—The Recorder said that the prisoner was obviously an expert forger and a very dangerous man. He sentenced him to four years' penal servitude.  Thomas Arthur Chapman, a cleat, was on Friday sentenced to six months' hard labour, at the Weht Kett Quarter Sessions, for stealing £4OO in Bank of England notes, the moneys of his employers, the London and County Banking Company, at Chatham. A Longford telegram says that during the polling for coroner at Drumlish, on Friday, a man was stabbed. Two men have been arrested. A telegram from New York states that at midnight en Thursday a collision occurred at Kan. kakee, Michigan, on the Illinois Central Railroad. Seven passengers were killed and ten injured. Early on Friday morning the body of a man, supposed to be Granger Thompson, the young man suspected of the murder of his father and mother at Leeds a week ago, was recovered from the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The body has since been identified as that of the supposed murderer. It is assumed to have been a case of suicide, from the fact that large stones were found in the deceased's pockets. So far as is at present known he has left no confession.  An inquiry was neld at the City Coroner's Court on Monday into the burning of a cigarette manu• tacturer's shop in Aldgate recently. After some temarkable evidauce had been given with regard to insurance,value of stock, and the finding of quanti• ties of wood shavings saturated with paraffin oil on Lite premises, the jury returned a verctict of arson zainst Zacharish Abin, the tenant of the shop, and se VaklYLin. 12isymiulos é.