This story was part of the Scotland Yard series introduced each time by Edgar Lustgarten and in this case was based on a real life crime dating back before the War.

In the main role was Alexander Gauge, famous for playing Friar Tuck alongside Richard Green in the very successful series ‘The Adventure of Robin Hood’ – although he was someone who cropped up in films over many years and had a prominent career on stage – a lot of the time in the West End. He also played Shakespeare on Broadway

This film was made in 1954 and it was very shortly after this that he got the role of FriarTuck and that ran from 1955 to 1960 when he died.

He died of a drug overdose and it is reported that he was plagued with gambling debts but I have no idae how true this is. He was a married man – He married to Phyllis Anne Lilley in Penzance in1947

Alexander Gauge

ABOVE – Edgar Lustgarten narrates the story as he always did in the ‘Scotland Yard’ series

Alexander Gauge ABOVE is exposed in the Bank by the police

1938: A blazing caravan is discovered in Edgware with a burned and unrecognisable body inside. Scotland Yard, led by Superintendent Ellis (played by Alan Robinson), identify the man as a printer called George Buxton since the remains of his suitcase with his name printed on it was discovered among the wreckage.

In actual fact Buxton (played by Alexander Gauge) murdered an elderly taxidermist called Arthur Cox (played by Edgar Driver), one of his customers, for his £30,000 football pools winnings.

He then burned his body, stole his identification and successfully claimed his prize money. Buxton then fled to a seaside town on the south coast of England where he cashed the cheque and requested the money be converted into bearer bonds, thus making it easier to get away with it. However, Buxton made a serious mistake – he didn’t bank on the fact that Cox had not ticked the no publicity box on his football pools entry form .

Another error he made – he did not know that his victim had agreed to split the winnings with a friend – in writing and the friend turns up and goes to the police who, armed with this information, are able to track Buxton down and prove that he is the killer