The Absconding Bicycle Clerk

For the members of the Paths to Crime team, it is sometimes the people involved rather than the specific crime which peaks our interest.

The Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Record Service Newsletter has an Olympic theme this month. Amongst the sports featured is cycling; a sport in which Bedfordshire has a rich heritage. One of those mentioned is Dan Albone of Biggleswade. He was not only a devoted and champion cyclist but an inventor and owner of the Ivel Cycle Works.

The Midsummer Quarter Session of 1887 has Mr Albone as the prosecutor in a case of theft. On 21 September 1886, Mr Albone gave the William Dietman, who he employed as a clerk, £15 5s 0d in cash, 2 cheques for £2 2s 0d and £1 1s 0d, and 3 postal orders for 20s 10s and 2s 6d. The following day the prisoner did not return to work. In his deposition, Albone elaborated how the bank book should have been left at the bank and made up, however he found it at the back of a box whilst moving offices. It showed the money and cheques had not been paid into the account. He went to the prisoner’s lodgings, and failing to find him, he applied for a warrant for Dietman’s arrest.

It was a further 9 months before Dietman was detained on a warrant and taken into custody at Biggleswade police station. At his hearing he pleaded guilty of stealing money, bank cheques and postal orders and was sentenced to 6 months hard labour.

Dan Albone also featured in the Paths to Crime document of the month for October 2011. Click here to read the original.

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