Grand lady with shady past

An innocent-looking old lady called "Cecilia" with a shady past is one of the star attractions of the Shannon's auction at next month's Sydney motor show.

Cecilia is a 1934 model 20/25 Rolls-Royce swept-tail sports coupe, named after infamous Australian gangster moll, Cecilia Hall.

The Rolls-Royce was given to Ms Hall in 1936 by her boyfriend, Melbourne gangster John Anderson, a big wheel in the criminal world during the Melbourne dock wars in the 1930s.

But Ms Hall fell out with Anderson and, believing she would be killed because she kew too much about Anderson's business dealings, fled Australia leaving the Rolls-Royce behind.

Anderson used it through the war years until he was declared bankrupt in 1948. The Rolls-Royce was sold and for the next 20-odd years sat parked in a barn on a farm outside Melbourne.

A Perth man bought it in the 1960s and partially restored it before selling it again. The Rolls-Royce turned up in New South Wales in 1997, where its present owner rebuilt it from top to toe.

He uncovered bullet holes in the chassis, a legacy of the dock wars.

Cecilia was one of only four Rolls-Royces in Australia to be displayed at the Melbourne stopover in last year's Rolls-Royce centenary rally.

Now Cecilia is looking for a new home.

The auction house expects her to fetch around $60,000. She is the only swept-tail Rolls-Royce 20/25 coupe left in Australia.