PROFITABLE ARSON

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 74, 9 March 1933, Page 8

PROFITABLE ARSON

ALLEGED FRAUDS ON INSURANCE COMPANIES. ONE MAN MADE £30,000 IN THREE YEARS. London, March 6. An incendiarism conspiracy existing •ince 1925 backed by a central organisation securing an amount running into six figures is alleged against 11 men and women charged at Bow Street with conspiring to defraud insurance companies. The prosecution, outlining several cases, alleged that Leopold Louis Har. ris. an assessor, headed the orgamsation. He with the other accused started companies and financed businesses in London and other places, filled premises with junk, effected insurances for grotesque sums and when the fires occurred presented inflated claims. In one instance the invoices were fabricated. The prosecution said an Italian named Capsoni and his wife claimed to have started five fires.. They were not accused, but would be witnesses. Capsoni claimed to be deep in the < rganisation’s plans and the prosecution was using him as an “instrument of justice.” They paid “him £5 a week for six months, but relied on him only when he was corroborated h.v discoveries during two years’ investigations. Counsel added that it was learned that Harris had six businesses burned in three years and had put at least £30,000 in his pocket. Accused were remanded on bail aggregating £95,500. “I SET FIRE TO IT.” London, March 7. "T set fire to it,” was the confession of Capsoni. made three times in reply to the prosecution’s queries as to how the fires at Manchester and Leeds started. A thirteenth accused, Vincent Cope, was charged with firing the warehouse •t Wembley. Counsel intimated that other arrests were likely.