“They came within an ace of getting away with it!”

The first trial in connection with what are known as the Adelaide insurance frauds was concluded at Adelaide on the 29th ult., Mr. Justice Boucaut being the presiding judge.
The defendants, James Barker and Dr. Horton, were charged with conspiring to defraud the Australian Mutual Provident Society by palming off upon them the ‘ life’ of a man named Weatherhead, whom they knew to be in a decline at the time the insurance was effected. William Hicks, the originator of the whole series of frauds, was charged with them, but, having turned Queen’s evidence, was discharged.
When the plot was formed Weatherhead was an inmate of the Destitute Asylum, having previously been discharged from the Adelaide hospital as incurable. Barker and Hicks now appeared on the scene, and by dint of liberal douceurs, and the promise of a comfortable maintenance for the rest of his days, obtained his consent to become the principal in the frauds.
By a skilful series of impersonations and the employment of certificates signed by Dr. Horton they succeeded in getting the society to pass Weatherhead’ s life, and took out a policy for £7000. They then transferred the dying man to Melbourne, and kept him in lodgings at Emerald-hill, where in a short time he died.
The plot was ‘blown’ through the curiosity of ‘a landlady, who read the letters and telegrams the conspirators carelessly left about. Hicks’s evidence, which was of a damnatory character, was sustained by a mass of undoubted ‘testimony, and the jury returned a verdict of guilty against the accused. Sentence was, however, postponed until a second charge of a similar nature against Barker was disposed of.
In the second case, in addition to ‘Barker and Hicks, Dr. Morrison was charged with conspiracy to defraud the Australian Alliance Assurance Company on a policy also effected on the life of Weatherhead under much the same circumstances as in the first case. Hicks again turned informer.
Barker and Morrison were convicted, the latter being recommended to mercy. Barker was sentenced to four years hard labor, Horton to two years, and Morrison to twelve months.
A third case, in which another man named Forsyth was mixed up, will be postponed, as Forsyth has decamped, having forfeited his bail.

Tag: insurance fraud

The Great Adelaide Insurance Fraud

“They came within an ace of getting away with it!”