EXTRAORDINARY FRAUD.

Southland Times, Issue 596, 26 November 1866, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY FRAUD.

A MAtf FOLLOWING- HI3 OWtf COFHN TO THE Git AYE. (From the London Standard, September 26.) One of the most remarkable frauds that has ever been perpetrated at the expense of an insurance company has for some time occupied the attention of the detective department of police of Scotland-yard. It appears that one Vital Douat, an extensive wine merchant of Bordeaux, insured his life to the amount of 100,000 f- in one of the insurance offices in Paris ; after which he returned to his place of business at Bordeaux, but subsequently failed, and was declared by the laws of France to be a fraudulent bankrupt to the amount of £24,000. He suddenly disappeared, and about a month afterwards his wife presented a certificate, purporting to be a copy of the register of the death and burial of her husband Vital Douat, in England, at the insurance, office in Paris, and claimed the amount for which his life had been insured. Some suspicion arising in the* minds of the officials at Paris, the insurance money was not paid, and the case was forwarded to the British authorities for investigation. The matter was placed by the Home-office in the hands of Inspector "Williamson, chief of the detective office, who directed Sergeant Druscovitch (the officer usually engaged in foreign inquiries) to collect the whole of the particulars of the case, as to when and where- Vital Douat died, and also the place where his body was interred. This officer, in commencing his inquiries, although meeting with numerous difficulties, succeeded in ascertaining the following extraordinary facts : — After quitting Bordeaux, Douat came to London, and took up his residence at Ford's Hotel, in Manchester- street, Man-chester-square, giving the name of Eoberti, where, after remaining for a few days, he desired the French waiter at the hotel to write him out a certificate in English, purporting to be signed by Dr Crittie, to the effect that one Vital Douat had died on the 29th of December, 1865, of aneurism of the heart. Notwithstanding the observations made by the waiter as to Eoberti's requesting the certificate of death to be written two days prior to the alleged death taking place he was persuaded to do it, and he wrote the certificate accordingly. On the Ist of December this certificate was presented to the registrar of deaths at Plaistow, in Essex, by Douat, who now assumed the name of Bernardi, and the death was registered in the usual way, it being stated that the body was then lying at JSTo. 32 Ann-street, Plaistow. On the same day he produced a certificate from the registrar of deaths, the sexton of St. Patrick's Cemetery, Low Leyton, ordering a grave to be dug, and paying the regulated burial fees, appointing the following Sunday for the funeral. Having made these arrangements he then went, in the afternoon, to an undertaker in the Mile-end road, to whom he gave the name of Eubini, and purchased a full-sized ready-made coffin, in which he caused to be placed a thick lining of lead, and the handles altered from the sides to the ends , of the coffin, in the manner usually adopted in France and other continental countries. On Sunday, the 3rd of the same month, Douat unexpectedly appeared asain at the undertaker's, paid the agreed price of the coffin, called in two laborers who were passing by, and had it carried to the Shorediteh station of the Great Eastern Eailway, where it was booked for Leytonstone, and Douat himself was also a passenger by the same train that conveyed the coffin. When the coffin arrived at Leytonstone, Douat accidentally met with a cart, which he hired, placed the coffin in it, and had it conveyed to St. Patrick's Cemetery, for burial, Douat himself being the chief and the only mourner. The coffin and supposed body were taken into the chapel of the cemetery, where the burial service was read over it by the Eev. Mr M'Quoid, and with all the ceremonies of the Eoman Catholic Church, the ostensible remains of Douat were consigned to the earth. The whole of these circumstances, which in themselves were highly suspicious, without availing himself of the mass of other information he had obtained, induced Serjeant Druscovitch to apply for a licence from the Secretary of the Home Department to exhume the coffin said to contain the body of Vital Douat. This having been obtained, Inspector "Williamson, Sergeant Druscovitch, and two gentlemen who were personally acquainted with Douat, proceeded to the cemetery, having previously furnished themselves with proper stimulents if the effluvium from the body should require their use. The two gentlemen referred to attended for the purpose of identifying the body of Douat, as he was well known to them ; and the coffin having been exhumed, it was opened, but to the gratification of the officers and the two witnesses it was found empty. The whole of the funeral was a sham. The weight of the supposed body of Douat had°been made up for by the introduction of an additional quantity of lead to the lead covering above stated. Upon these facts being mentioned, a warrant was granted by Sir Thomas Henry, chief magistrate, for the apprehension of Douat i for an offence within the Eegistration Act, a search was immediately instituted by the officers, and the result was that they discovored. the delinquent had taken his departure for America, and was thus beyond the pale of the English law. By

eor'i'S&pdntlencs, hotfevei?, just received, it appears that although Douat evaded the penalties of the English law, he has recently been captured on his return from America at Antwerp, by the Belgian i authorities, and under their Extradition Act he will be handed over to the French ■ Government to be dealt with by the i tribunals of that country for his 1 fraudulent bankruptcy, and also for his attempted fraud on the Paris Life Insurance Office. Should he be convicted i there, of which there can be little doubt, he will be amenable to a greater amount of punishment than he would in England for making the false registration.