Bank Fraud in 1900 London

Banks are often associated in the public mind with robberies, and attempted robbery. In 1900 it was no different: during the previous hundred years there had been some startling instances of fraud in which Banks had been indirectly concerned.

Antiques from London on eBay

A LANA OF LONDON STERLING SILVER 24 K GOLD CRAB BELT BUCKLE
31 Jan 2012 at 11:52am
US $475.00
End Date: Sunday Feb-05-2012 9:52:56 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $475.00
Buy it now | Add to watch list
1571 London Geo. Buchanan's Mary Queen of Scots original 1st ed in English
29 Jan 2012 at 12:13pm
US $997.00 (19 Bids)
End Date: Sunday Feb-05-2012 10:13:49 PST
Bid now | Add to watch list

In the early 1840s there was the case of Walter Watts, a man of fashion, patron of sports, theatrical speculator, and connoisseur of wines and horseflesh, who puzzled people in the West-end as to his sources of income.

From 10 am to 9 pm he was a clerk in the Globe Assurance Company, which he defrauded of £70,000 before justice overtook him.

His dazzling career ended in a suicide's death in Newgate.

Then again, the Crystal Palace frauds and forgeries, in 1856, perpetrated by Robson, another mysterious man of fashion, in reality a transfer clerk.

In the "fifties" Redpath supplied a cause celebre, in which the chief actor passed as a man of wealth.

Then in 1860 there was Pullinger, chief cashier of the Union Bank, who, by means of a duplicate pass-book on the Bank of England, succeeded in defrauding his employers of £263,000, the greater part of which he squandered in Stock Exchange speculation and betting.

He is said to have died a raving lunatic.

Of late years there had been several remarkable instances of robberies and embezzlements in the Banks themselves.

In a South American Bank, a trusted official had for a long period been in the habit of abstracting securities, until they finally reached the amount of many thousands of pounds, the robbery not being discovered until the documents were unexpectedly asked for.

In another South American Banking establishment, the managing director was convicted of having used for his own purposes large funds.

Another case, though native to Australia, must be mentioned because of its singularity.

In a Bank there, a clerk by some means had continual access to the reserves of gold coin stored up in bags, and for that which he purloined, he skilfully substituted leaden dummies of corresponding weight, so that no suspicion was aroused at the periodical audit, until after some time, when a more than usually careful auditor insisted upon having all the bags opened as well as weighed, the theft was discovered.

The most curious part of the affair was that every penny was recovered with good interest, the clerk affirming that he had taken the coin in order to invest it, as he could not bear to see so much capital lying idle!

Robberies from the counters of Banks were by 1900 almost impossible, because of the universal adoption of the railing-in principle; but the snatching of cheques, bank-notes, etc., from the hands of unwary customers, was not altogether unheard-of, instances having occurred a few years previously both at the London and Westminster Bank and the Birkbeck Bank.

Bank-clerks and others dealing with valuable securities, and provided with bill-cases, properly secured, were seldom caught napping.

Rarely did such a thing happen; but a few years earlier some bags of gold coin in process of transit, were mysteriously transferred at the City Bank door into the wrong man's hands, and never recovered.

Next: Mercantile London in 1900 - Insurance Companies