Speaker 1: A quick warning this story contains adult themes and strong language.
Speaker 1: February nineteen ninety nine, Auckland, New Zealand. It's six am
Speaker 1: in the beachside suburb of Herne Bay, a quiet summer morning.
Speaker 1: Most of the residents of Marine Parade are still asleep,
Speaker 1: but one is up, bright and early.
Speaker 2: I was a cyclist, and a very amateur cyclist, stretching
Speaker 2: the lycra on and going out for an early morning
Speaker 2: ride to beat the traffic jams.
Speaker 1: That's Greg Buckley from number forty.
Speaker 3: I do that three or four times a week.
Speaker 1: And it's a beautiful day for a bike ride. Greg
Speaker 1: wheels his bike down the driveway.
Speaker 2: I saw all these cars packed up there, and another
Speaker 2: one's pulling up at the same time.
Speaker 1: Slowly, four five, six cars creep up the road and
Speaker 1: park outside his neighbour's bungalow, number forty two, the home
Speaker 1: of Evelyn Burton and Lilah Andre. Evelyn's still fast asleep,
Speaker 1: but the noises outside have woken Lilah. She's considering going
Speaker 1: to have a look at what's going on. When Lilah
Speaker 1: knows instinctively what's happening. The only people who knock like
Speaker 1: that are the police.
Speaker 4: So are we out there? And I see hello.
Speaker 1: The detectives at the door are in plain clothes. They
Speaker 1: ask her if her name is Lila andre Yes said
Speaker 1: to me, then is Evelyn Burton home issues in bed?
Speaker 4: They say, you better get her up and get her dressed.
Speaker 1: The police are already inside their home. They come in four,
Speaker 1: one after the other after the other, pour into their bungalow.
Speaker 1: Lilah and Evelyn's pugs look on bewildered. Next door at
Speaker 1: number forty, Catherine and Greg are lapping it up.
Speaker 5: So Greg comes rushing big and it's it's happening, It's happening,
Speaker 5: this is it, this is it, And I'm sure they
Speaker 5: are all cops outside.
Speaker 3: Their time is up, you know, they've been sussed out.
Speaker 5: And sort of scuttled down to the street and just
Speaker 5: peered around the corner. I could see all the cars
Speaker 5: and then start to see people carrying boxes out.
Speaker 2: Other detectors were rushing around the house, grabbing documents and
Speaker 2: taking photos and things.
Speaker 5: It's like, wow, it's happened.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, at the center of the action, Lilah sees her face.
Speaker 1: She recognizes a face she didn't expect to see at all.
Speaker 4: She came in the door and I looked at her
Speaker 4: and as soon, why did you do that?
Speaker 1: It's Evelyn's most recent victim, the woman from the local
Speaker 1: lesbian group. She's invested fifty seven thousand New Zealand dollars
Speaker 1: into Evelyn's latest scheme. That's about sixty five thousand US
Speaker 1: dollars today. And what did she say?
Speaker 4: Ihing just look at me.
Speaker 1: And with that, Lilah and Evelyn are handcuffed and led
Speaker 1: to a police.
Speaker 3: Car, and then they were taken off and all was quiet.
Speaker 1: And on Marine Parade life returns to normal. The birds
Speaker 1: sing and the sun shines. But I'm sure there's one
Speaker 1: question you're asking above all else. Who on earth is
Speaker 1: going to look after the pugs from usg Audio Blanchard House?
Speaker 1: And exactly right, Media, this is royal swindle. I'm Becky Milligan.
Speaker 1: Episode six, Bonehead, Saint Albans, England. Detective Constable Jim Frost
Speaker 1: has no idea what's just played. Eleven thousand miles away.
Speaker 1: He still hasn't a clue where Evelyn and Lila are,
Speaker 1: but the evidence against them just keeps building, and Jim
Speaker 1: has just made one hell of a discovery.
Speaker 6: There was one small piece of evidence which probably sums
Speaker 6: up the case or Evelyn's defrauding almost better than anything else.
Speaker 1: It's a contract, one of dozens promising spectacular returns, all fake,
Speaker 1: of course, but this contract is special, very special, because
Speaker 1: it could help Jim put Evelyn away for good. On
Speaker 1: this contract there's a space for the name of Evelyn's investor,
Speaker 1: but instead of a company or named individual, Evelyn has
Speaker 1: written bonehead, bonehead. Jim has hit the jackpot.
Speaker 6: I thought, what a fantastic piece of evidence, because that's
Speaker 6: clearly what she thinks about the people she's going to
Speaker 6: take money from.
Speaker 1: Jim knows that this document will go down very well
Speaker 1: in court. As Jim Frost gathers his witness statements, the
Speaker 1: Horsey set keep replaying everything that's happened over and over
Speaker 1: in their heads, all their conversations with Evelyn and Lilah.
Speaker 7: Now they were dreadful, The pair of them were dreadful.
Speaker 1: Trying to recall the warning signs that our duo weren't
Speaker 1: who they said they were. Marjorie Ramsey remembers one meeting
Speaker 1: in particular.
Speaker 7: And they were in what they called the pentas and
Speaker 7: what I would call the attic of this hotel.
Speaker 1: And one detail sticks out.
Speaker 7: There was a tread and on the tray were pink
Speaker 7: donuts with spreckles on it.
Speaker 1: I think she means sprinkles.
Speaker 7: And I thought that was very odd for a millionaires.
Speaker 1: Francis Hutchinson tells Jim Frost. The warning sign for her
Speaker 1: was a call from her local bank manager, who'd also
Speaker 1: crossed paths with Evelyn. He said to me, I think
Speaker 1: you will see some money, but I'm not sure you're
Speaker 1: going to see this very large volume of money that
Speaker 1: Evelyn is talking about. Lucille and Larry also keep going
Speaker 1: over and over their meetings with the pair. Remember they
Speaker 1: sold their Arab Philly to Evelyn to start her new
Speaker 1: stud farm. When the money failed to materialize, Evelyn's excuses
Speaker 1: became more and more bizarre.
Speaker 4: I'm terribly sorry, she said, I've been tied up buying
Speaker 4: a bank in Germany.
Speaker 7: Well I actually laughed because I thought she was joking.
Speaker 1: But it turns out Lucille and Larry are the lucky ones.
Speaker 1: They tell Detective Jim Frost. They'd called Evelyn's bluff, threatened
Speaker 1: to expose her, and guess what.
Speaker 7: We did get the money in the bank At four o'clock.
Speaker 1: How much was it this?
Speaker 4: Fifteen thousand pounds?
Speaker 1: The testimonies are all adding up to a very compelling
Speaker 1: case against the Aussie couple, but Jim Frost still has
Speaker 1: one small problem. Evelyn and Lilah have gone awall and
Speaker 1: he's worried that they might be gone for good.
Speaker 6: There's that fear so you might not get them back.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, in Auckland, the police car carrying Lila and Evelyn
Speaker 1: sweeps into the back lot of the police station. They're
Speaker 1: led inside to the custody sergeant. Our duo are separated
Speaker 1: and taken to different cells, where each of them sit
Speaker 1: and wait on the hard bench with nothing to look
Speaker 1: at but to stainless steel toilet. Lila and Evelyn have
Speaker 1: been on the run for four years, fleeing Australia, America,
Speaker 1: then Canada and the UK. Now their past has finally
Speaker 1: caught up with them. The mice are finally caught in
Speaker 1: the trap.
Speaker 4: There were so many things, so many things in my
Speaker 4: head then, and it was all swirling around. It was
Speaker 4: like back one of those cartoon engine you see the
Speaker 4: birds going around. You know, I don't know, I just
Speaker 4: I just couldn't understand what had happened.
Speaker 1: Lilah can't believe it. Things couldn't possibly get worse, could they.
Speaker 4: They did something up there with eleven thousand pays of
Speaker 4: charges against evoln and I.
Speaker 1: I mean, eleven thousand is probably a slight exaggeration, but
Speaker 1: the only thing Lila hears is that there are charges
Speaker 1: against her, and that just can't be. Lila has always
Speaker 1: made it clear this isn't her business. What Evelyn does
Speaker 1: has nothing to do with her. It's all Evelyn.
Speaker 4: I said, Well, I don't know what because I wasn't
Speaker 4: involved in any of these, which I wasn't.
Speaker 1: Lilah is mystified and can't fathom why their victim didn't
Speaker 1: just have a quiet word with them instead of running
Speaker 1: to the police. Were you angry?
Speaker 4: I was angry, But if she had come to me
Speaker 4: and said something about this, then I could have said,
Speaker 4: don't worry, I will do something to get your money back.
Speaker 1: It's too late now Evelyn and Live are charged with
Speaker 1: fraud and things are about to get even worse, but
Speaker 1: they're not going down without a fight. Meanwhile, back on
Speaker 1: Marine Parade in New Zealand, the Bucklers are reeling from
Speaker 1: the Dawn raid.
Speaker 5: Oh I couldn't wait to get to work. Tell you,
Speaker 5: it didn't do much for that first hour at work
Speaker 5: as I did the circuit of the office, going oh
Speaker 5: my god, it's happened all.
Speaker 1: Evelyn and Lilah's arrest is big news.
Speaker 2: It wasn't normally like your parties and swinging in the
Speaker 2: neighborhood in late nights.
Speaker 5: Does it make us sound pathetic that it was the
Speaker 5: most exciting thing to have ever happened in anighborhood Because
Speaker 5: it was.
Speaker 1: Days go by and Evelyn and Lilah don't return. The
Speaker 1: Buckleys keep an eye out for their neighbors at number
Speaker 1: forty two, But as days into weeks and weeks turn
Speaker 1: into months, there's no movement from the bungalow next door.
Speaker 1: Then one day Kevin appears again, Lilah and Evelyn's landlord.
Speaker 1: He's come to check on the house.
Speaker 5: And he came springing over and said, come and have
Speaker 5: a look at this. And Greg wasn't home and missed it.
Speaker 5: He never got to see it.
Speaker 1: Catherine follows Kevin through the front door, through the hallway,
Speaker 1: past the master bedroom until they arrive at the door
Speaker 1: of another room.
Speaker 5: There's this other bedroom at the back corner of the
Speaker 5: house quite sort of dark and shady.
Speaker 1: Then the big reveal, Kevin flings open the door.
Speaker 5: And it was set up as an essen m parlor.
Speaker 5: I believe never been to one before, but it looked
Speaker 5: like a pretty professional setup to.
Speaker 3: Me work from home.
Speaker 1: Yes, Catherine is stunned. She looks around and takes it all.
Speaker 5: In the picture now that I always remember still is
Speaker 5: the whip sort of hanging in a lovely pattern on
Speaker 5: the wall, all sort of draped nicely. And then there
Speaker 5: were a couple of things hang off the ceiling, and
Speaker 5: I have to say I was in shock.
Speaker 1: Not really Catherine's style. But then something catches her eye
Speaker 1: from the corner of the room, and then there.
Speaker 5: Was a wreck of the most gorgeous clothes.
Speaker 1: Madame Xavierra's finest garments, leather, patent, leather platform boots, spikes.
Speaker 5: And then there were a few sort of costumes that
Speaker 5: were somewhat more on the goly scale of things, little
Speaker 5: fluffy dresses and you know, nurses outfits, and it really
Speaker 5: was cliche city. It was breathtaking.
Speaker 1: Lilah and Evely and two residents of Marine Parade who
Speaker 1: will live in infamy.
Speaker 5: Oh and we still talk about it, so then we go.
Speaker 2: You wouldn't believe what their neighbors did. You know, it's
Speaker 2: a good party story.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, in England, Detective Constable Jim Frost steps up his
Speaker 1: efforts to locate our OSSes.
Speaker 6: We have to try and trace them, he.
Speaker 1: Throws the net wider and wider.
Speaker 6: Speaking to airlines, whether they've used their passports anywhere. We're
Speaker 6: speaking to people that they know, and you just keep
Speaker 6: looking until you find them.
Speaker 1: Jim thinks there has to be some logic behind their decision,
Speaker 1: behind where they'd go next. He needs to get inside
Speaker 1: the heads of Evelyn Burton and Lilah Andre.
Speaker 6: We thought straight away that they would only flee to
Speaker 6: a country that spoke English, because they, as far as
Speaker 6: we knew, had no foreign language. And I was convinced
Speaker 6: that wherever Evelyn went, she would need to commit fraud
Speaker 6: to live, and to commit fraud, she would need to
Speaker 6: speak to English people.
Speaker 1: An English speaking country. So that narrows it down to
Speaker 1: only about seventy countries. Where would Evelyn go? Which country
Speaker 1: would she choose?
Speaker 6: Well, we were confident that she would not go to America,
Speaker 6: because she'd fled from America in the first place. She'd
Speaker 6: also been to Canada during the trips, and our information
Speaker 6: was that she had possibly fallen foul of people there
Speaker 6: as well. We were fairly confident she wouldn't go back
Speaker 6: to Australia because we were told that she was wanted there.
Speaker 1: It's a process of elimination.
Speaker 6: So in the English speaking world, where was she left?
Speaker 6: South Africa? New Zealand, New Zealand.
Speaker 1: Could it be New Zealand? It feels promising a viable option,
Speaker 1: far enough away to start over, not to mention a
Speaker 1: lovely place to retire. It makes sense. Jim thinks. He
Speaker 1: puts in a call and tells the New Zealand cops
Speaker 1: that if our two Ozzes crossed their radar, Jim would
Speaker 1: love to know. And sure enough, one day, as if
Speaker 1: the universe is smiling on him, the stars aligne.
Speaker 6: We were contacted by New Zealand.
Speaker 1: A call from a police department in Auckland who have
Speaker 1: in their custody Miss Evelyn Burton and Mess Lilah Andre.
Speaker 1: It's as if all Jim's birthdays have come at once,
Speaker 1: But Jim can't say he's surprised.
Speaker 6: As we had suspected a straightaway got into committing fraud
Speaker 6: and they got caught very quickly.
Speaker 1: Jim has finally found Evelyn and she's in jail. She
Speaker 1: can't go anywhere. It's the perfect catch for more reasons
Speaker 1: than one.
Speaker 6: I'm going to be entirely honest with you. All policemen
Speaker 6: love the prospect of the possibility of foreign travel.
Speaker 1: Catch the baddies and get a holiday while you're at it.
Speaker 1: It's a win win for Detective Jim Frost. All the
Speaker 1: official paperwork is done and the New Zealand authorities agree
Speaker 1: to allow Jim to extradite Lilah and Evelyn back to
Speaker 1: the UK. Everything is falling into place very nicely. Jim
Speaker 1: sits at the piano and reflects on his triumph as
Speaker 1: his fingers glide across the keys. He can't wait for
Speaker 1: his trip down under. February nineteen ninety nine, Auckland District Court.
Speaker 1: Evelyn and Lilah are led into the dock. It's their
Speaker 1: first appearance and they've dressed down for the occasion in jeans, trainer's, long,
Speaker 1: untucked shirts, and no makeup. It's not Lila's usual look,
Speaker 1: but she's still flashing her show stopping smile. Evelyn's short
Speaker 1: gray hair is pushed back by a pair of reading
Speaker 1: glasses on the top of her head, and her expression
Speaker 1: is really serious. The clerk of the court asks the
Speaker 1: duo how they plead to the charge of fraud. Not guilty,
Speaker 1: they say, But then a shock they're told about another
Speaker 1: problem that the British police are onto them. Evelyn knows
Speaker 1: it must be Detective Jim Frost, whom she last saw
Speaker 1: eleven thousand miles away in Saint Alban's police station. Over
Speaker 1: by that photograph of her Majesty, Evelyn drifts off momentarily
Speaker 1: and recalls her encounter with the Queen at the Royal
Speaker 1: Windsor Horse Show. What a day that was, and then
Speaker 1: she snaps back to the courtroom. To their horror, Evelyn
Speaker 1: and Lilah are told that the British police want to
Speaker 1: extradite them back to the UK. Bloody Jim Frost thinks
Speaker 1: Evelyn and the cherry on the cake. Jim's requested the
Speaker 1: New Zealand authorities keep them in custody. Evelyn and Lilah
Speaker 1: are flight risk. That could be Jim's biggest understatement yet.
Speaker 1: The case is adjourned and Evelyn and Lilah are led
Speaker 1: out of the dock to a prison vehicle waiting outside
Speaker 1: the court. As they clamber into the van and sit
Speaker 1: on the hard plastic seats, they mul over their next
Speaker 1: move and Evelyn makes Lila a promise. This isn't over.
Speaker 1: Mount Eden Prison is their new residence. They couldn't be
Speaker 1: further from Marine Parade now, and it's certainly not the
Speaker 1: Berkley Hotel. Here the service is not impeccable, but Lila
Speaker 1: is adaptable. Just as she warmed to life on Marine Parade,
Speaker 1: she adapts to life at Mount Eden.
Speaker 4: I loved it. You liked it. Nice people, Yeah, I
Speaker 4: met a lovely quilt with the girls. We wrote a magazine.
Speaker 4: I went to the Bible study group.
Speaker 1: Yes, Bible study.
Speaker 7: I was telling a good time. I mean I was huge.
Speaker 1: Good food then deep.
Speaker 4: Fried everything cakes every day.
Speaker 7: Lovely.
Speaker 1: Lilah and Evelyn are settling into their new lives, and
Speaker 1: Evelyn's even giving legal advice to her fellow inmates.
Speaker 4: Even started telling them what they should say to their
Speaker 4: lawyers and how they should say it. She really really
Speaker 4: helped the girls a lot, and that was her main
Speaker 4: interest at that.
Speaker 1: Time, always looking out for women for her girls. Old
Speaker 1: habits die hard.
Speaker 4: You know, we were Mam and Day or Auntie and
Speaker 4: Uncle man Pa.
Speaker 7: They called us too.
Speaker 1: Evelyn also starts penning a novel, a racy lesbian porn thriller. Actually,
Speaker 1: I've read some of it and it's very graphic, set
Speaker 1: in a brothel with two very charismatic madams. Unfamiliar. But
Speaker 1: it's not as easy breezy as it sounds. There are
Speaker 1: bad days too, because Evelyn's not in a good way.
Speaker 1: She's never recovered from that tummy tuck that went wrong.
Speaker 4: She was a very sick woman who was put into
Speaker 4: jail to serve a sentence. Okay, she may have deserved it,
Speaker 4: but the one thing they shouldn't have done was put
Speaker 4: her in jail. They shouldn't because she still needed medical attention.
Speaker 1: And to make matters worse, As much as she tries
Speaker 1: to hide it, Lyina is still a bit angry at Evelyn,
Speaker 1: Angry that they've been caught, Angry that they've ended up
Speaker 1: in jail, Angry that Evelyn has broken her promise to her.
Speaker 4: Why didn't you tell me? Why couldn't you confide in me?
Speaker 1: So the problem here seems to be this, Evelyn's not
Speaker 1: said enough to Lilah, but has said too much to
Speaker 1: everyone else.
Speaker 4: I always said that to evyone, from the very first
Speaker 4: day a mirror, you talk too much.
Speaker 1: And nine months later, in December nineteen ninety nine, it's
Speaker 1: as if all of Evelyn's talking, her boasting, her billy
Speaker 1: big talk, comes back and bites her in the backside.
Speaker 1: We're back at Auckland District Court. It's a big day
Speaker 1: and it isn't an easy one. Evelyn has tried every
Speaker 1: trick in the book to get her and Lilah out
Speaker 1: of this fix, but no matter how hard they fight,
Speaker 1: they can see no way out. Lilah and Evelyn are
Speaker 1: led into the dock and told to stand. Evelyn is
Speaker 1: asked how she pleads to the charge of fraud. Remember
Speaker 1: it's that fifty seven thousand New Zealand dollars she stole
Speaker 1: from the woman in the lesbian social group. Now Evelyn
Speaker 1: pleads guilty, The judge sentences her to six months in prison,
Speaker 1: time she's already served, and then dismisses all the charges
Speaker 1: against Lilah. Now, normally that would be good news they'd
Speaker 1: both be free to go, but not our to Ozziz,
Speaker 1: because they still face a long, long journey eleven thousand
Speaker 1: miles in fact, Lilah and Evelyn face extradition. Oh and
Speaker 1: if you're wondering what happened to Evelyn and Lilah's pugs,
Speaker 1: well don't worry. They weren't extradited. One of the marine
Speaker 1: parade neighbors came to the rescue until a friend of
Speaker 1: Evelyn's provided them with a more permanent home. What a relief.
Speaker 1: January the fourteenth, two thousand. It's a cold winter's day,
Speaker 1: bitterly cold enough to make you shiver. Detective Jim Frost
Speaker 1: steps onto a plane at London Heathrow Airport, and one
Speaker 1: day later steps off the plane in Auckland, where it's
Speaker 1: the height of summer.
Speaker 6: I will see. I was excited. I've never been to
Speaker 6: New Zealand and it was yeah, this is great.
Speaker 1: He's booked a few days off to enjoy himself. Well,
Speaker 1: why not, he deserves it. But after letting his hair down,
Speaker 1: he sorts out the remaining paperwork and heads off to
Speaker 1: collect Evelyn and Lilah. A moment he's really going to relish.
Speaker 1: He's smiling already. January two thousand, mounted in prison Auckland,
Speaker 1: New Zealand. The heavy doors of the prison slowly open
Speaker 1: and Lilah and Evelyn emerge from the shadows into a
Speaker 1: sizzling hot day. It's the closest thing to freedom that
Speaker 1: they felt in nearly a year, but they're far from
Speaker 1: free and far from alone. They're met by the media,
Speaker 1: paparazzi cameras flashing, snapping away in New Zealand. They're headline news. Lilah,
Speaker 1: her long red hair tied back into a plat, has
Speaker 1: gray roots. Now she's wearing baggy striped trousers, and Evelyn
Speaker 1: is hobbling along beside her in a denim shirt. They
Speaker 1: squint in the sunshine, and then a large shadow falls
Speaker 1: over them. It's been a while since Evelyn last saw him,
Speaker 1: two years. She hoped she'd never see him again, believed
Speaker 1: she'd never see him again. She was convinced she'd outwitted him,
Speaker 1: but he's never given up. Jim puts her hand on
Speaker 1: Evelyn's shoulder and grins. He's been waiting a very long
Speaker 1: time for this day. You've been listening to Royal Swindle
Speaker 1: at Blanchard House production for usg Audio in partnership with
Speaker 1: Exactly Right Media, Hosted by me Becky Milligan. It's written
Speaker 1: and produced by Me Becky Milligan and Sarah Jones. Original
Speaker 1: music is by Daniel Lloyd Evans, Louis Nagmanell and Toby Mattimon.
Speaker 1: Sound design and mixed engineering is by Vulcan Kiseltog, Toby
Speaker 1: Mattimoon and Daniel Lloyd Evans. Story development by Duncan Barber.
Speaker 1: The managing producer is Amka Schortino Nolan. Production support from
Speaker 1: Josh la Longi at USG Audio. The creative director at
Speaker 1: Blanchard House is Rosie Pye. The executive producer and Head
Speaker 1: of Content at Blanchard House is Lawrence Grisell. Our executive
Speaker 1: producer from USG Audio is Josh Block