South Eastern Gazette, 7 February, 1860.

The Notorious Dutchman at Ashford.

At the police court, on Tuesday, before W. Burra, Esq., an elderly and very respectable-looking man, who gave the name of Van de Walter, but who has a number of aliases, was charged with defrauding Mr. Bridge, of the "Market Inn," to the amount of upwards of £4.

Supt. Dewar said that, from papers he had in his possession, it appeared that prisoner came to England in 1843, when he passed by the name of Dr. Wolff. His career in this country had been marked by a succession of swindles, and notices of his conduct and descriptions of his person had been frequently published in the newspapers. He (the Superintendent) held information that in 1858 he absconded from an hotel at Grantham, after contracting a debt to the amount of £60 by representing himself to be a gentleman of property; he was afterwards guilty of the same conduct at Leicester, where he left a debt of £61; then at Derby, where he victimised an hotelkeeper to the amount of £28; he was then found at Canterbury, where, upon his representation that he was a gentleman of fortune with money coming in February, his promissory note was taken for a debt he ran up there; but from what subsequently transpired, he suddenly quitted that place also. He afterwards came to the "Market Inn," Ashford, where, upon the faith of his representations, he had been allowed to contract debt of £4 5s. for board and lodging. He had represented that his luggage was left at Derby, and upon a message being sent the superintendent of that place came up, and identified him as the man who had swindled the hotel at that place, by a likeness of himself, which he had left behind. There was, however, nothing else there belonging to the prisoner besides an old coat.

Mr. W. Bridge deposed:— The prisoner came to my house in the evening six weeks ago, had some tea, and afterwards went to bed, for which he paid the next morning. He has remained in my house ever since, and continued to pay every day for what he had until the 4th of January. He then said he should like to bargain for a month, as he was short of money just then, but had plenty coming to him early in February; he being a man of large property abroad — in mining shares, and money in foreign funds — the dividends upon which would then become due. He also showed a quantity of stones in a paper, which he said were diamonds, some cut, and some in the rough state. I asked him to allow me to take them to show some one in the town who would acquaint me of their value; but he would not; he said he would only leave them with me if they were sealed up and locked in a drawer. He said he had left all his luggage and books at the "Royal Hotel," Derby. He stayed till his bill amounted to £4 5s. A gentleman who came to my house, remarked to me, "Why, you have got that man who goes about swindling public-houses," and upon that I gave him into custody. I should not have let him had the board and lodging but upon the representations that he made.

Prisoner:— The diamonds were not offered you as security for the debt; but to show you that I did not intend to run away without paying. I still believe that they are diamonds, and I did not like to let them go because I knew no jeweller could tell their value.

Supt. Dewar deposed that he apprehended the prisoner on Saturday, and asked him if he had any diamonds. He replied, No, he had not. Witness found in prisoner’s leather bag the stones produced. After prisoner got to the lock-up, witness asked if prisoner was any profession. He said, No, he had been reduced to his present circumstances for the last two years through the fraud of his brother-in-law, for whom he was bound for £10,000. Witness found all the letters and papers produced in prisoner’s bag. (Among these was a letter from a solicitor in London relative to an offer by prisoner to sell a project of his invention for £100; another was relative to selling a process by which prisoner proposed to convert crystals into diamonds). The property he possessed besides was an old shirt.

Mr. Edward Hayward, jeweller, proved that the stones were of no value whatever.

The prisoner made a very long defence, to the effect that he came to stay at a small inn in a small town in order to make his funds go as far as possible till he received his money in February. He lived at Mr. Bridge’s only in a very moderate way-having but one meal a day and a glass of rum at bed time, for which he regularly paid. Being on friendly terms at last with Mr. Bridge, he asked if he could have credit till February, intending, if he could not, to have gone away at once; although he should have regretted this, as he was very comfortable indeed, he had lived at many first-class hotels, where the accommodation was not so good as that provided by Mr. Bridge. As he could not pay, Mrs. Bridge asked for some security, and she then suggested that he should leave the diamonds with them. She wanted to have them valued, and this he would not allow, as they were specimens from a new mine in the Brazils entrusted to him to have tested. This made him cross, and gave rise to his apprehension.

Mr. Burra said that, as far as the offer of the diamonds went, there was a fraud; but at the same time innkeepers should have the same caution as other tradesmen in trusting strangers without luggage. He thought if the case was gone on with, the parties from Derby and Canterbury should attend and give evidence.

Superintendent Dewar said they had offered to do so, and the case was accordingly remanded for that purpose.

South Eastern Gazette, 14 February, 1860.

The Swindling Dutchman.

At the remanded examination of Van de Walter (but who has also a string of aliases) on a charge of defrauding Mr. W. Bridge, of the "Market Hotel," a good deal of evidence was brought forward a as to the prisoner’s career of swindling previous to his a making his appearance at Ashford.

Mr. Henry Cantril, son of the proprietress of the "Royal Hotel," Derby, said the prisoner came to his mother’s hotel in August, and after staying two or three days paid his bill. He then intimated that he should like to come to some terms for his accommodation. In the course of his stay he informed witness that he was bringing out a book on chemistry. After remaining about three months he left, without paying his account, which was about £28; and witness had not seen him since till the present time.

Mr. George Hilton, superintendent of police at Derby, said:— In consequence of a communication I received I came to Ashford on Saturday last, and went in search of the prisoner, whom I found in the "Mechanics’" Reading Room. I told him I had come from Mr. Bowyer, Leicester, and the "Royal Hotel," Derby, and was commissioned to make arrangements with him, if he could make any of a satisfactory character. He said, "I shall pay them when my money comes from Amsterdam."

I said, "I am commissioned to telegraph to any respectable person, whom you may know there." He then said, "I had property there, but I became security for my brother for £10,000; he has run away, and I am ruined." He added that he had not had dinner for two days, and no breakfast that morning, and that he had not a farthing in the world. I said, "How did you get, from the "Royal Hotel," Derby, when everybody was looking after, you?"

He replied, "I had £19 which a gentleman gave me; Mr. Bowyer came from Leicester, and others came and demanded money of me, and I knew that if I gave it to any one of them I should be destitute, and locked up in prison, and then could not get away; so I went upstairs, and recollecting there were some back stairs, I went down and got into the street unobserved."

But I added, "How did you leave the town when we were watching for you at the station?"

"O," he replied, "I took a cab and went to the next station."

After he had gone from Mr. Bowyer’s, at Leicester, it was found that he had taken his things away by small quantities, and left an empty trunk.

Mr. James Venables, of the "Mitre Hotel," Oxford, said the prisoner came to his house on the 7th of October, 1858, and when he left owed a bill of £68 17s. 6d. At first he paid a small bill or two. While he was at Oxford he was introduced to the best society, and stated that he was bringing out an invention in connection with gas. One Saturday he left, and as he did not come back in the evening, suspicion was aroused, and it was found that he had left behind him two empty boxes, which were upstairs.

Mr. Joseph Strangfield, surgeon, Weston-super-Mare, Somersetshire, stated that he knew the prisoner some years ago, as Dr. Wolf, when the latter was staying at an hotel at Weston. The prisoner was introduced to him as a literary man, and a great linguist, and they became acquainted. Having some shares in the Hague Gas Company, and the prisoner being a Dutchman, the witness was induced to ask him if he was acquainted with the company, and knew anything of its position. The prisoner then induced him to part with fifteen of the shares to himself that he might ascertain their value, but he did commission him to sell them. After a considerable lapse of time during which he had lost sight of the prisoner, he received a communication from Mr. Goldsandt, a Hague broker who advised him to sell the shares at par. He never heard anything of the prisoner after he left Weston until he received a communication in reference to him from Mr. Venables, of Oxford. With considerable difficulty he traced thirteen of the shares, ten of which he obtained back again, and found that the prisoner had sold three, which were worth £20 each at par, but, could gain no information with reference to the remaining two.

Prisoner questioned Mr. Strangfleld, with a view of showing that he had given him ten of the shares back, and that they were all valueless, but Mr. Strangfleld said that his assertions were totally untrue.

This being the whole of the evidence against the prisoner, the Chairman said he thought the charge of obtaining goods under false pretences had not been substantiated; he had not obtained goods by means of false pretences, but made the fraudulent representations because he was not able to pay the bills.

Superintendent Hilton said that he had discovered that the prisoner victimised hotel keepers in Yorkshire in a similar manner ten years ago; he had also traced him to Chester and Grantham.

The Chairman:— If the sale of the shares can be proved against him there is no doubt of a conviction.

Prisoner:— I think, when I am a little more composed, I can answer every case. The truth is this, Mr. Chairman, that I am ruined by my brother-in-law, who ran away with the money for which I was security. Before that I had been living in very good circumstances. Then I became very poor, and I have tried by my knowledge to make some money, and I came for that purpose into England. I have several inventions, which I have made useful to me, and made money with them; but that would not always succeed, and then I have been reduced, and been almost a pauper. Then I have made money again, and paid what I owed. I am now getting old, and my energies and faculties have not always been successful. Still, I was on the point of being successful in Derby, if that Mr. Bowyer had not interrupted me and driven me away. But wherever I have been I have paid as much as I could. Now, the man that pays whenever he can is not exactly a swindler. As far as this case goes, it is a trumpery case. To me these shares were worth nothing; they had not paid any interest for the last ten years or more, and it was only from friendship that I charged myself with ascertaining what they were worth.

The prisoner was then formally charged with having committed a misdemeanour, in applying the shares to his own use, and on this charge he was ordered to be detained, and, for the convenience of the witnesses, transferred to Somersetshire.

South Eastern Gazette, 6 March, 1860.

The Swindling Dutchman.

Van de Walter, otherwise Dr. Wolf, and a number of other aliases, the Dutchman who was examined before the Ashford magistrates on a charge of swindling Mr. Bridge, of the "Market Inn," and several other hotel keepers, and who was remanded to Weston-super-mare, in order that a charge of fraudulently disposing of some shares in the Hague gas company, entrusted to him by Dr. Joseph Strangfield, of that place, might be further investigated by the magistrates there, has been committed for trial at the next Old Bailey sessions.

South Eastern Gazette, 10 July, 1860.

East Kent Quarter Sessions.

These Sessions were held on Tuesday last, before J. B. Wildman, Esq., chairman.

Francis Warner was indicted for having stolen 18s. from the person of John Weller, at Ashford, on the 13th of June. Mr. Russell prosecuted.

Prosecutor deposed that on the above day he went to the "Market Inn" with the prisoner. While there he felt something in his pocket, and then saw the prisoner’s hand pass to her pocket. He then missed two half-crowns. The prisoner took all his money to count it for him, but kept 13s., and went off with it. He gave information to the police, and afterwards saw her in the street. She said she had got his money all right, and if he would go with her, she would give it to him. He went with her, but could not get his money.

Six months’ hard labour.