HE .WEST HAM FRAUDS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 18, 20 July 1907, Page 13

HE .WEST HAM FRAUDS.

The trial of the West Ham Guardians and officiale was concluded on Fridayweek. Of tho ten defendants, only one,. Richard Tarrant, was acquitted. Two — Crump, a guardian, and Lewis Hill, the steward of the West Ham infirmary — received the maximum penalty of two years' imprisonment with hard labour, and tho remaining seven wero sentenced to terms of impr-sonment varying from six to eighteen months. The defendants were found guilty, under the count of conspiracy, of combining to give contracts for the delivery of coal to the union to one particular contractor named Bond ; and in several cases, notably that of Crump, they were also proved to have corruptly solicited and taken rewards from candidates for various appointments under the West Ham Union. Not only Guardians, but workhouse official^, were made accomplices in order to secure the successful working of tho scheme, which was carried on for three years until the fraud was detected by the auditor of the Local Government Board. Mr. Justice Jeff, who tried the case, described the state of affairs as "a downright system of frau dand robbery" and "a hotbed of corruption," and his language was fully justified by the evidence.