Jail for woman who swindled businesses

A Glasgow woman who swindled businesses in Stirling was snared by an observant book keeper, the Observer of October, 1929, revealed.

For what a sheriff termed an “extraordinary course of dishonesty’ 31-year-old Myra Watt was jailed for six months.

She had been charged with obtaining a large quantity of goods through false pretences.

Glasgow Sheriff Court was told a few weeks earlier, Watt had turned up at a boarding house and said her husband and child were dead. She then went to a hotel where she ran up a bill of £8 and 15 shillings (more than £550 in today’s money) and left without paying.

Later, she told a porter at the North British Hotel, Glasgow she required the hire of a car. She left the hotel in the car, telling the driver to go to Edinburgh. She picked up friends there and headed for Bridge of Allan where she was joined by another man.

At Stirling, lunch was ordered but not paid for. The accused then sent the driver on to Callander with her friends, arranging that he should return later. However, the driver returned and waited but there was no sign of Watt who, said the Observer, `went about the country committing a number of offences.

Explaining how Watt was eventually brought to justice, the Observer said: `Six days later, the book keeper in the Stirling Hotel, an observant young lady, was convinced a women whom she had met in the Arcade was the person who had played a trick of omitting to pay her account. She communicated her suspicions to police.’

Inquiries were made and Watt was traced to a hotel in Bridge of Allan where she was arrested.

The Observer added: `At several of the places in which she resided for a short time she was able to acquire dresses and other goods by false pretences, the value of these articles amounting to about £60 (almost £3,800 in today’s money).’