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SATURDAY NOVEMBER 25th 1865
ARREST OF A MIRFIELD DOCTOR
DR. THOMPSON WHALLEY, a medical practitioner, at Mirfield, is in custody
charged with having defrauded the British Prudential Insurance Company, by means of a policy of insurance on the life of a patient named HANNAH HEPWORTH, whom he had represented to be a
person of good health, although aware that she was suffering from an incurable disease.
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 25th 1865
THE ALLEGED FRAUDS BY A MIRFIELD SURGEON
— His APPREHENSION. —
Last night, Thompson Whalley, M.D.,
of Mirfield, was apprehended on a charge of defrauding the British Prudential Insurance Company, and lodged in Dewsbury police station. It will be remembered that the Mercury, of
Thursday, contained a report of an inquest held at Mirfield on the previous Tuesday night, on the body of Hannah Hepworth, who had been a patient of the doctor's, and that it was
elicited that her life had been insured by him without the knowledge of her relations, and that, in fact, he had committed a direct fraud upon the insurance company. The manner in which
the company was being wronged was by representing Hannah Hepworth, in August last, when the proposal for insurance was made, as being a healthy person, when, in fact, she was suffering
from an incurable disease, and by
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returning as the cause of death, "Two weeks' fever, two weeks enteritis," when she was carried off by malignant disease of the rectum — the
disease being cancer. Superintendent Martin, of Dewsbury, communicated with the directors of the insurance company, and they sent down a representative to aid him in making
investigations, when it was found that the life of one Law Walker, of Mirfield, a patient of the doctor's, had been insured by him without his knowledge or consent, or that of his
relatives. This man lies very ill, and he was in a delicate state of health when the insurance was affected. It was also ascertained that the British National Assurance Company, for which
he was medical referee, had been victimised—he having certified that another of his patients, the wife of a coach-builder residing in Huddersfield, was of good health, when she was
quite the reverse. The Company granted a policy upon his certificate, the amount being for £1,000. Yesterday (Friday) Mr. Dewey, of the British Prudential Office, applied to the sitting
magistrate at the Dewsbury Courthouse for a warrant for the apprehension of Dr. Whalley, and it having been granted, Inspector Parker was dispatched to Mirfield to take him into custody.
This he did, and about five o'clock he was placed in the police station as above stated. The affair has caused much excitement in Mirfield and Dewsbury.
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