Forest Gate's arsonists and insurance fraudsters

Forest Gate resident Leopold Harris and his family and associates have played a significant part in shaping how fires are assessed for compensation today following a major trial in 1933. This post is indebted to local resident and fire brigade historian Peter Williams for its inspiration, a major modern insurance-world blog, and a 1930s book for much of its content (see footnote). We are grateful to them for helping to piece together this fascinating tale of intrigue and calumny.

Leopold Harris

The trial of Harris and his gang of fireraisers was one of the newspaper sensations of 1933. A special dock had to be built to accommodate the 17 defendants during the conspiracy case, which was heard at the Old Bailey. It lasted six weeks and was, at the time, the second longest case to have been heard there. Its historical significance cannot be overstated, as it reshaped the insurance industry’s investigation of fires, leading to the creation of the profession of Loss Adjustors.

Harris' childhood family home 531 Romford Road

Harris, the central figure in the story, was born into a middle-class family in Forest Gate, and they lived at 531 Romford Road, E7 (1911 census). His father had founded Harris and Co. as a fire insurance assessor in 1865, and Leopold joined it as a young man, taking over aged 31 in 1925. Assessors attend the site after a major fire and calculate the financial losses that might result from the fire.

Until the early 1930s, fire claims investigations lacked consistency, with competing insurance companies not sharing valuable evidence and data. Harris and his gang took full advantage of this loophole and devised a simple scam.

He established a network of corrupt contacts in Fire Brigades and the Salvage Corps (insurance-funded bodies that worked with the fire service to salvage as much as possible from fires to minimise the size of settlements), nationwide. 

Captain Brynmer Miles MC - a corrupt co-conspirator

Among those Harris bribed in the industry was Captain Brynmer Miles, the London Salvage Corps Chief Officer. Before then, Miles had a distinguished military career (decorated with the MC) and had held senior positions within the London Fire Brigade. Following the stock exchange crash of 1929, he got into financial difficulties, and Harris was there to help him, with bribes. Miles knew of Harris’ crimes and actively worked to cover them up, so that no suspicions were raised or prosecutions took place.

The scams

Harris invested money in a series of businesses—not in his own name—and saw that they were insured for much more than they were worth. Most of the companies he established were supposed to be engaged in wholesale trades such as textiles and stationery, dealing in highly inflammable products. Having overseen the establishment of the firms, he would pay generous sums to the front people who set them up and proceeded with the rest of the scam.

He and others in his gang planned fires on these premises and made themselves available locally when the fires were due. He used his spies (like Miles) in the fire and salvage organisations to tip him off as soon as they became aware of a fire. In some cases, Harris’ people arrived on the fire scene before the fire bodies (!), which put them in a prime position to secure the right to represent the policyholder (complicit in the fraud) in claiming damages.

Camillo Capsoni, conspirator who turned King's evidence

Another arm of his sophisticated team of crooks involved Camillo Vittorio Luigi Capsoni, an Italian with a struggling high-quality silk business. He and Harris’ brother-in-law, Harry Gould, who ran a commercial salvage business near Liverpool Street, would ensure that the premises identified for the fires were filled with cheap, usually inflammable products. 

Capsoni's Italian Silk Company, in a staged photo to show his credibility

One of their first frauds was at Capsoni’s Franco-Italian Silk Company in Oxford Street in 1929. They filled it with cheap products worth less than £3,000 and insured it for ten times the amount. They devised a way of setting fire via a lighted candle trail, which left little trace when the cause of the fire was investigated, allowing the rest of the scam to follow undetected.

The scene at Metro-radio, Manchester after a Harris arson attack

Once the fire destroyed the stock they planted on the premises, they produced false invoices to suggest the burned goods were very high-end products, thus bumping up the scale of the claim. The various arms of the corrupt Harris organisation would share the spoils of the fraud.

Sidney Balcombe (Harris' brother in law, and company secretary) lived at 110 Capel Road, but claimed no knowledge of the scams

Another brother-in-law and witness at the Harris trial was Sidney Balcombe, who lived at 110 Capel Road in Forest Gate in a house owned by Leopold Harris in the 1930s. He was married to Harris’ sister. Though Balcombe was company secretary, he said he knew nothing of the frauds. Their family relationship was to have long-term consequences—see below.

The "talkative" Harry Priest in his fireman's uniform

One of Harris’s co-conspirators, Harry Priest, became too talkative about the frauds and was overheard discussing them in a pub. The conversation came to the attention of William Charles Crocker (later Sir William), a solicitor who specialised in fraud cases.

Sir William Charles Crocker, the anti-Semitic lawyer who tracked down the case and later became Deputy Director of MI5 and President of the Law Society

Capsoni fell out with Harris and helped Crocker put his case together by offering “King’s evidence”. In his biography, Crocker recalled, "I spent half of 1931 and the whole of 1932 deep in such a plot as Edgar Wallace might have used, had he not found the truth of it too tall for fiction.”

There is a further unpleasant twist to this drama. Crocker’s anti-Semitism, which was common among the English middle and upper classes at the time, may have fueled his determination to bring the Harris gang to justice. Harris and most of the key members of his gang were Jewish. Crocker was later involved in several dubious pro-German and anti-Semite groups in the late 1930s, which did not stop him from briefly rising to the position of Deputy Director General of MI5 in 1940 and President of the Law Society.

The trial

Crocker’s painstaking investigations laid the basis for a raid by 40 police on 17 different premises, which uncovered enough evidence to prosecute the trial the Harris gang faced in July/August 1933.

In passing sentence at the end of the lengthy trial, Mr Justice Humphries had the following to say about those who have featured above:

Leopold Harris: “You were the head and front of this conspiracy … You are responsible for the presence in this dock of your fellow co-defendants, and you have pleaded guilty to no less than ten separate cases of arson. The sentence of this court is that you are kept in penal servitude for fourteen years”.

Capt Brynmer Miles: “I feel I should be doing less than my duty if I did otherwise than to send you to penal servitude for four years.”

Camillo Capsoni: Pleaded guilty to 25 charges of arson and fraud and turned King’s evidence. The judge called him “the most destestable type of criminal” whom he regretted he would “be unable to pass sentence, of which he deeply regrets.”

Harry Gould: “Your case has given me much trouble. You were in the conspiracy from start to finish … I had it in mind to pass a sentence of ten years penal servitude.  But the prosecution ….(said that you had been co-operative) ..The sentence therefore, upon you, will be penal servitude for six years.”

Harry Gould - another brother-in-law of Harris' - sentenced to three years for his part in the crimes

Harry Priest: “Your learned counsel described you as a boastful fool. … Your part in the conspiracy was a very substantial one … I sentence you to a term of three years penal servitude.”

The gang was careful to ensure that their arson attacks did not kill or harm people. Had they not done so, the above sentences would have been much more severe and could have included capital punishment.

The Harris gang’s spree of insurance frauds lasted 3-4 years and generated more than £1.5 million in fraudulent claim payments (in excess of £110 million at today’s rates). Harris and co took over 30% of the money as their cut in the scam. Little of the money was recovered.

Aftermath

The diligence by which the scams were conducted led to a serious review of their operations by fire insurance companies and the establishment of the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters.

Australian newspaper, The Truth, covers the outcome of the case

As seen from the cutting above from an Australian newspaper, the case gained widespread international attention. It led to the publication of a book, The Fire Raisers, by Harold Dearden, by significant publishers William Heinemann. The following year a feature film of the same name, directed by Michael Powell, was released. It is still available on YouTube (Fire Raisers film).

Fire Raisers - the book

 

 

 

Fire Raisers - the film

Most of the convicted arsonists/fraudsters served only half of their sentences. Harris was the last to leave prison in August 1940, having served just seven years (mainly in Maidstone jail). He returned to the insurance assessor's business on release.

Leopold Harris, with his wife, on his release from prison in 1940

 

In January 1972, Barking MP Tom Driberg urged Scotland Yard to investigate the activities of the then 78-year-old Leopold Harris following a spate of fires in London. Using parliamentary privilege, he claimed that Harris and co were “up to their old tricks of submitting fraudulent claims.”

The litigious Harris strongly denied the claims and challenged Driberg to make them outside of parliament so that they could be actionable under defamation laws. We have been unable to find any follow-up on this exchange. Leopold Harris died in 1983, leaving almost £200,000 in his will.

In yet another twist to this strange tale, Ellis and Buckle, another firm of loss adjustors, decided to republish the 1934 book The Fire Raisers "by arrangement with the copyright holder" (William Heinemann) in 1986, presumably in a bid to discredit their main loss adjusting rival company at the time. 

This was much to the consternation of Harris’ family, who were still running the family business. Amid heavy threats of litigation, the republication ceased after around 1,500 copies had been released.

The Harris family continued to trade as the Harris Claims Group until it merged with its main rivals, Balcombe and Co. (see the Harris-Balcombe family relationship above), in 2008 to form Harris Balcombe. That company currently has three Balcombes and one Harris on its main board.

There is absolutely no claim or suggestion that this company is improper in its business dealings. We are happy to accept their statement that they are: “the oldest and most prestigious claims recovery specialist in the UK.”

Footnote. As mentioned at the top of this post, we are grateful to Harold Dearden’s book The Fire Raisers for much of this article's content and for using most of the photographs. We are also very thankful to David Worsfold of the insurance industry blog The Insurance Post (here) - edition May 2020 - for some of the more recent and contextual information in this article.