SALVAGE CORPS CORRUPTION

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 December 1933, Page 7

SALVAGE CORPS CORRUPTION

ASTOUNDING ALLEGATIONS PRESSURE ON ASSESSORS [by CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] LONDON, December 18. Leopold Harris (convicted of fire insurance frauds) told an astoundingstory of whole-sale bribery in connection with London fires, when giving evidence at Bow Street, in the case in which Miles, chief of the Corps, is accused of taking bribes.

Harris alleged that he bribed almost the entire Salvage Corps, the members of which came openly to his office, some limes in uniform, to receive the money.

He declared: “The Salvage Corps was corrupt before I was born. I did not initiate the bribery. It was simiply a matter of competing with our competitors’ methods. The Salvage Corps gave better service to the assessor paying the biggest shilling.” Counsel produced a list of certain members of the Corps, and asked Harris to strike out the names of those he had bribed. He replied: It would be simpler to strike out the only man I have not bribed. I even bribed his father, whose name appears on the list. He added: I never approached anyone with a view to bribery, and only bribed those who came to me, indicating they were susceptible to money payments. Harris told how Olliver Capsoni (who gave King’s evidence), in the course of an unfriendly tearful interview, after Capsoni was kicked out of Harris’s office, sought £2OOO to leave the country.

Harold Ralph, fire assessor, in his evidence, stated that Miles ridiculed the idea of Salvage officers going to Harris’s office for pay. Ralph made allegations against a superintendent, whose name was not disclosed to the court, but Miles had declared that the faintest suspicion of any Salvager helping Harris -would be incalculably harmful to Ralph. He had offered to produce a book in Harris’s handwriting, detailing all each payments, but failed to obtain it. Witness paid one man £5 weekly for information. The same man kept Harris informed. The case was adjourned to December 20.