The Warwickshire Herald. — 1893-10-26 (Birmingham, West Midlands, 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 exchange for £l,OOO each; and also to obtaining by false pretences from Henry Joseph Garrett the sum of £5,800 with an intent ti defraud.—Mr. C. F. Gil., who prosecuted, said that the charges to which the prisoner had pleaded guilty were cf a very serious character. He was alleged to have forged and uttered bills of exchange, purporting to be drawn by Lord Lumen and accepted by his brother-in-law, Lord Chelsea, in respect of which he had obtained a sum of £5,800. The person from whom this large sum of money was obtaioed was a retired gentleman named Garrett. He made the acquaintance of the prisoner lay an accident. Prisoner repr,sented that be was a man in a good social position, and the son of a colonel in the Army, and he represented further that he had acted as a commission agent for noblemen wh, were following turf pursuits. He made a proposal to Mr. Garrett that he should lend money to Lord 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 Lurgau 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 oills for £l,OOO each, drawn by himself aud accepted by his tarot hei-in-law, Lord Chelsea. ein the mith of these fraudulent representations Mr. Gana: made op £3,000, which he handed to the prisorer. Shortly afterwards the prisoner represented that Lord Lurgan 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.blarrett then parted with a sum of £2,700. The prisoner gave five bills of exchange, bearing the I !Ted signatures of Lord Lurgaii and Lord Chelsea. tither n,go iationa were enteied into, and, after an unsuecessful attempt to get all the bills back, the prison. r disappeared. The matter was placed in th, bands 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 agaiust prisoner.—Mr. Purcell, in mitigation, said the only explanation which he had to offer for the fraud was that the prisoner had been unfortunately tempted to gamble on the racecourse and on the Stock Exchange. He was a man eh° had had sums of much larger than that mentioned in the charge pass through his hands, which had been ~otained legitimat iv. He had a belief that he  He .Id have been able to repay Mr. Garrett, who h*. acted with every kindness to the prisoner, the n,nney which he bad obtained.—The Recorder said that the prisoner was obviously au expert forger ah I a very dangerous man. He sentenced him to four years' penal servitude.  homas Arthur Chapman, a clerk, was on Friday sentenced to six months' hard labour, at the West Kea Quarter Sessions, for oh aling £304 in dank England notes, the mom ys of his employers, the ;...ndon and County Banking Company, at Chatham.  Longford tele;ram say; that -duridg the polling 1./r coroner at Drum on Friday, a man WWI 'tabbed. Two men have been arrested.  A telegram from New York states that at midnight cn Thursday a collision occurred at Kankakee, Michigan, on the Illinois Central Railroad. '-even passengers were killed and ten injured. Early on Friday morning the body ot a man, supposed to be Granger Thompson, the young man suspected ol the murder of Ills father and mother at Leeds a week ago, was recovered from the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The body has since been clentified as that of the supposed murderer. It is assumed to have been a case of suicide. from the tact that large stones were found in the deceased's pockets. So far se is at present known he has left confession.  vv. Blackwood and Sons will publish in Jays the narrative of "A Journey through the •Pll." With some general remarks upon the awn•,, 1-,y M. Walter B. Harris, author of "Travels ", Morocco," illustrated with three maps and Pomnvings from his own sketches and photographs.  , • fhe European Pictures of the Year, in three harts, of which two have appeared. is a very inrerestine companion gallery to Cassell's "Royal leadem) Ph-tures," published earlier in the year. hi portraiture, landscape, and egure-drawing the specimens a..lected are splendid illuetrations a con',isomers, Continental art.