Trial of the Detectives
Encyclopedia
The Trial of the Detectives (also known as the Turf Fraud Scandal) was a police corruption scandal involving three senior officers at Scotland Yard
in 1877.
Scotland Yard had been called in to investigate a confidence trick
in which two Englishmen, Harry Benson and William Kurr, had taken £30,000 from a Parisian woman named Madame de Goncourt using a scam involving horse racing bets. The arrest of Benson and Kurr proved particularly difficult, as they always seemed one step ahead of the pursuing officers. It was later revealed that Inspector John Meiklejohn had been accepting bribes from Kurr to warn him when his arrest was imminent. Two other individuals involved in the investigation, Chief Inspector Nathaniel Druscovich and Chief Inspector Palmer, were also implicated in this corruption.
The three stood trial at the Old Bailey
and were sentenced to two years in prison. The incident had implications for the organisation of Scotland Yard, as the Superintendent's ability to supervise his subordinates was called into question. Following the Committee of Inquiry, the Detective Branch was reorganised into the CID
.
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
in 1877.
Scotland Yard had been called in to investigate a confidence trick
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
in which two Englishmen, Harry Benson and William Kurr, had taken £30,000 from a Parisian woman named Madame de Goncourt using a scam involving horse racing bets. The arrest of Benson and Kurr proved particularly difficult, as they always seemed one step ahead of the pursuing officers. It was later revealed that Inspector John Meiklejohn had been accepting bribes from Kurr to warn him when his arrest was imminent. Two other individuals involved in the investigation, Chief Inspector Nathaniel Druscovich and Chief Inspector Palmer, were also implicated in this corruption.
The three stood trial at the Old Bailey
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...
and were sentenced to two years in prison. The incident had implications for the organisation of Scotland Yard, as the Superintendent's ability to supervise his subordinates was called into question. Following the Committee of Inquiry, the Detective Branch was reorganised into the CID
Criminal Investigation Department
The Crime Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service CID,...
.