EXTENSIVE FRAUDS UPON INSURANCE COMPANIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1581, 11 March 1882, Page 14

EXTENSIVE FRAUDS UPON INSURANCE COMPANIES.

(Melbourne Argus.)

An extraordinary discovery has just been made of an extensive and a most cunninglydevised attempt to impose upon two leading insurance companies in Melbourne by means of fraud and, it .is believed, impersonation. As far as the facts of the cases can be at pro sent ascertained, it appears > that early iv September last year Messrs Hicks and Barber, general insurance agents at Adelaide, South Australia, proposed insuring the life of a man named Weatherhead, in the Melbourne office of the Australian Mutual Provident Life Association Branch Company for a sum of £3000, on the usual conditions and arrangoments. The " life," as persons offering themselves for insurance are termed in insurance circles, was considered highly satisfactory, and on the usual medical and other certificates being produced, it was accepted and the necessary fees paid. At about the same time the same agents proposed to insure Mr Weatherhead's life in the Melbourne office of the Australian Alliance Assurance Company for a sum of £5000, and as everything appeared to be carried out in a straightforward and businesslike manner, the ** life " was accepted by the Company, and the'necessary fees deposited by the insurers. In a little less than a month Messrs Hicks and Barber had succeeded in insuring Weatherhead's life for £8000, and as a matter of course they received the percentages usually paid upon such transactions. Nothing further was heard of the matter till December last, when apartments were taken at Emerald Hill for an invalid named Weatherhead, who was seriously indisposed, and of whose recovery but slightjhopas were entertained. The man "gradually Bank, and died early in January last, when he was buried by a friend, who was in constant attendance upon him, The mpvoments of the

attendant aroused the gravest suspicions of the landlady, and she managed to keep him under surveillance when he little expected. On one occasion her natural curiosity induced her to carefully collect and preserve tho pieces of a telegram which had been carelessly torn up and strewn about the floor,and on placing the pieces together again in their natural positions, she made a discovery which at first greatly surprised and astounded her, but subsequently induced her to hasten to the insurance companies already referred to. Before taking this step, however, she came into possession of a letter which had been thoughtlessly thrown aside, and its contents fully confirmed her suspicions. Inquiries were at once set on foot. The first interesting discovery made was the fact that the person who was in constant attendance upon Weatherhead during his indisposition was one of the agents who had effected the insurance j and, secondly, that Messrs Hicks and Barber were claimants for the insurance money. After considering the matter for some time, the insurance companies issued warrants against Hicks and Barber for fraud, and the latter has just been apprehended in Adelaide. Hicks left Melbourne by the last steamer for Adelaide, and it is stated that he will be apprehended immediately upon his arrival there. It is thought that the fraud was effected by means of impersonation, but in the present incomplete state of the case it is not considered desirable to disclose further particulars than those already given.