Turf Fraud Scandal or the Trial of the Detectives

This notorious corruption scandal in 1877 resulted in the reorganisation of the Detective Branch into the CID.

A rich Parisian woman, Madame de Goncourt, became the victim of two English confidence tricksters, Harry Benson and William Kurr, who persuaded her to part with £30,000. Scotland Yard were called in, and Superintendent Adolphus Williamson employed a bright multi-lingual Chief Inspector, Nathaniel Druscovich, to bring Benson back from Amsterdam where he had been arrested. Druscovich seemed to find the job surprisingly difficult. Sergeant John Littlechild and two others were sent to catch Kurr, and were repeatedly foiled by his moving on just as they expected to arrest him. Eventually they caught up with him in Edinburgh, and he stood trial and was convicted.

Scotland Yard began to wonder why the arrests had been so difficult, and Benson and Kurr began to explain. Inspector John Meiklejohn, a deeply corrupt character, had been in Kurr's pay since 1873, accepting large sums of money to tip him off when his crimes were about to lead to his arrest. Meiklejohn had offered Druscovich the opportunity to borrow money from Kurr to repay his brother's debts, and thus Druscovich was also implicated, as was Chief Inspector Palmer, who appears to have been duped into going along with his colleagues.

The trial in progress at the Old Bailey

The three were sentenced to two years in prison, and the scandal nearly wrecked Williamson's career. Although his integrity was unquestioned, his supervision of subordinates seemed wanting, and following the Committee of Inquiry, Howard Vincent was given the opportunity to reshape the Detective Branch.