Jailhouse rock: Elvis memorabilia goes up for sale

A DATE has been set for an auction of Elvis Presley memorabilia, which was confiscated from a thief, it was announced yesterday.

Julie Wall’s vast collection — numbering thousands of individual items — will go under the hammer next month to repay the £600,000 (€883,299) she siphoned from her employers.

The Crown Prosecution Service is hoping the sale will attract huge interest in the run-up to the 30th anniversary of the King’s death on August 16.

The rarest item is a South African pressing of a recording by Presley and Janis Martin with a guide price of £500, (€736) but which sells for about £2,500 (€3,680) at retail prices.

Among the 600 lots in the sale on June 10 are:

A 1964 credit card receipt from Presley’s Texaco Gas account.

An autographed copy of the album A Date with Elvis.

A limited edition of the first Elvis Presley CD ever released.

CPS confiscation chief Gary Balch said: “Our message to all those who commit any crime for financial gain is that when they are caught they not only run the risk of receiving a prison sentence, but they will be stripped of the full profits of their crimes.

“This case is unusual because of the nature and volume of the property confiscated.

The sale could generate £200,000 (€294,514) to £300,000 (€441,771).

Mr Balch added: “Whilst we cannot realistically expect the proceeds of the auction to fully recompense the council for its losses, it will be a significant step in the right direction.”

In January last year a recorder at Lincoln Crown Court ruled 47-year-old Wall should repay her debts to North Kesteven district council after she admitted two counts of theft. She was also handed a three-year jail term.

Wall, of Rippon Drive, Sleaford, Lincolnshire, stole a total of £597,964(€880,701) while working as a cashier for the council.

She pocketed cash collected from council parking meters, taking up to £10,000 (€14,725) every month.

Her role at the council, where she had worked for more than 30 years, was to deposit takings from meters into the council’s bank account.

But for a decade she stole to feed her compulsion for Elvis memorabilia.

Wall declared herself bankrupt following her conviction, meaning her only assets were the Elvis memorabilia and a second-hand Vauxhall Astra.