INSURANCE FRAUDS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22356, 29 February 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

INSURANCE FRAUDS

CUNNING PLANS FAIL f \. TRAPPING THE TRICKSTERS EVERY . KIND OF SWINDLE A BOGUS-FUNERAL CONDUCTED To 6ome people life insurance companies are fair game for every kind of swindle, and their plots include almost every subterfuge in the calendar of. crime, writes the well-known English authority on crime, Mr. George Dilnot. Next to Scotland Yard itself there aro no organisations in London whose archives are filled with stranger stories of high drama than the insurance companies. From subtle murder to every device of petty trickery there is scarcely a crime by'which they are not liable to suffer. Tlmt is why, directly and indirectly, they all employ detectives—including many men who have won high reputations at Scotland Yard. Plots more fantastic than any imagined by writers of fiction have been concocted by men of no scruples and immense daring. The leading spirit of one gang I will call Grey. He is dead- how, but there is no reason to hurt the feelings of any surviving relatives by recalling his real name. Mysterious Accident

Grey was a man of good family, a delightful companion, always well dressed, who had many acquaintances in society, although his reputation was, to say the least, a little rickety. He had first come to public attention as the central figure of a famous murder trial. A rich young man, to whom he acted as tutor and whose life had been insured for many thousands ..of pounds, had mot with a mysterious' and fatal accident while out shooting with him. Grey was charged with murder in a Scottish court, but ultimately a verdict of " not proven was returned. Not long after this Grey was in London acting as a moneylender's tout. But although he drew heavy commissions for introducing rich young aristocrats to this Shylock he was still anxious to make his fortune quickly. With the moneylender and others he formed what was, in effect, a murder syndicate. Curiously enough, all their plans, ingenious as they were, went wrong. There was a young man who was inveigled to. Boulogne and, heavily encumbered with oilskins, sea-boots, and south-wester, taken for a row in the harbour. Grey who was his companion, w£.s much more lightly clad. Atempted Murder At the proper moment he extracted the cork from the bottom of the boat. Had it su,nk the young man must inevitably have beeil drowned. But, although it filled with water, the boat refused to sink and they were rescued by fishermen. Grey's plausible explanation was readily accepted.' Another member of the gang attempted a,murder in Tangier, but he was less lucky than Grey, for he was. convicted and sent to penal servitude for life. Then Grey picked a third victim. This was a young fellow whom I will ciall Norris—which again was not his real name. Norris was steadily drinking himself to death. Grey conceived the idea of getting him to sign a proposal form for insurance with the Norwich .Union Company for a large sum. Norris was a little difficult at first, but he needed money. To get it ho had forged his'father's name to some promisgory notes, and faced with the threat of expossure he was induced to fall in with the plans of the gang. He did not guess, of course, that Grey intended to hasten his death by plying him with drink.

Cases of Faked Deaths ;This wreck of a man obviously could not pass the medical examination, so a healthy substitute, masquerading under his;, name, appeared before the doctors. The policy was issued, but before the second premium became due the Norwich Union smelt a rat. The matter was handed over to the police, and in the end Grey, and the moneylender got five years apiece. .Although there have been m.any cases of murder for insurance money, faked deaths are much more common. The cash result is the same, and there is not the risk of being hanged. One man went to the trouble of forging a death certificate and staging a bogus funeral.

Then there was the strange case, a few years ago, of a respectable middleaged woman whom I will call Angela. Her life 'was insured with a couple of insurance companies for something like £SOOO. One summer she went to Ilfracombe for a holiday. After some days she vanished and her clothing was found in a cave on the beach. It was assumed that she had been drowned while bathing, and a month or two later the Probate Court gave leave to presume her death. One insurance company paid up, but the other still had doubts. They were justified, although it took a few years to'prove them. A son—a bit of a bad egg—had been killed in ari accident a week after buying a car'on money he had borrowed on his expectations, under his mother's life policies. But it was discovered that his widow was receiving letters from abroad. When the affair wait probed a little further, the " dead " woman was discovered in one of the overseas Dominions, masquerading as " Trixie \Finch." Some of her adventures were revealed. She had left the beach at Ilfracombe clad in a macintosh and little else. At a cottage she induced an aged woman to provide her with shoes and stockings. Then she went to Exeter, where she adopted the name of Trixie Finch, and was helped by a Girls' Friendly Society. Miniature That Disappeared

The next year or two were spent as a cook and in other domestic engagements in Devonshire, and at last an agency which supplied servants to the Dominions paid her fare and got her a job. When the fraud was exposed she was brought back to England and given six months for misleading the Probate Court.

Anything insurable may be the subject of a swindle, whether it be a ship or a picture. One day a miniature was bought at Christie's and heavily insured.

This treasure the proud owner placed in a safe weighing one and a-half hundredweight, and then hid the safe in a wardrobe. But before very long there was a burglary at the house. Safe, miniature and all were spirited away.

Detectives loked into the matter for the insurance company, and on their report the claim was fought. Among the startling features of the case was the appearance of a young man from a Borstal institution whose rather colourful crime career had begun when he was sixteen. He swore to a talk with the insurer of the miniature, in which it was suggested that ho should break into the house and steal the safe containing the picture. For this he was offered £SOO. His part in the scheme was carefully explained to him, and he was shown oyer the house. It was impressed upon him that ho was not to steal anything but the safe, although he was to give the place, the appearance of having been thoroughly ransacked. Luckily or unluckily for him, he was arrested for something else before his exploit could be .carried out. The inference his story was intended to convey \yas that someone else had been found to 'steal" the safe. A verdict was returned for the insurance company.