ALLEGED FIRE FRAUDS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 305, 22 November 1934, Page 3

ALLEGED FIRE FRAUDS.

WOMAN’S EVIDENCE. .Mis s Lillian Barnes, _ an attractive woman, occupied tlie witness-box almost all day on November 12 during tlie hearing of the charge against Frederick Rickards and Henry Joseph in London with having unlawfully conspired with Leopold Harris to defraud insurance companies. Barnes, an employee of Rickards, admitted having lived with him. She said that Rickards was pressed for money, and told her to leave the premises in Fore Street earlier than usual, and to take a parcel, which she later found contained the firm’s books. When she demurred, Rickards threatened to throw her down the stairs. Later she met him, and saw that he was agitated and trembling. She asked what was the matter. They motored to Fore Street, and he pointed to the blazing premises. She said to him : “What have you done?” She knew Leopold Harris as “Chester.” Once after meeting him Rickai'ds showed her 500 £1 notes. The hearing was adjourned.

The charge concerns an allegedly incendiary fire in Rickards’s premises in Fore Street, London. The premises had been insured for £2OOO, and Harris assessed the damages at £ISBO. Later, Rickards started in a business which Harris and Joseph financed, and insured it for £16,000. The fixtures were fragile, and were stocked with rubbishy celluloid umbrella handles, for which ridiculously high invoices were received. After a fire Rickards, it is alleged, attempted to bribe the assessor, who said that the claim was excessive. Subsequently a claim for £16,000 was settled for £12,900, of which Harris received £2450 and Joseph £290.