ABSTRACT
The investigation and proof of fraud have always presented con siderable difficulties for policing agencies in Britain and America. For example, there is a contemporary ring about the following evidence of policeman John Bull in R d Gordon and Davidson, a £500 000 (at historic prices!) long-firm fraud tried at the Old Bailey in 1855:
I was instructed to follow Davidson and Gordon - 1 left England on the 4th September 1854 and went to Neufchatel in Switzer lan d - I saw Gordon there in November 1854-I was not able to take them into custody in consequence of the law of that country - after that, from information I received I went to Malta; the prisoners were apprehended previous to my going there - 1 arrived there on the 2nd April this year -1 had come home in the meantime - 1 went with a warrant which the authorities there held to be illegal - they were discharged . . . they afterwards embarked upon the boat the ‘Indus’ on which I followed them and arrested them at Southampton.
