Did you know a treasury fraud was uncovered in St. Lucia in 1849 and it brought political discontent for both the working class and the planters? It was the largest case of fraud ever uncovered on the island and one which rocked the island to its core.
According to one radical lawyer, Henry Percin, the working-class people’s outrage over the treasury fraud and the laissez-faire manner in which the Lieutenant-General allowed the main perpetrator to get away, had positively aggravated the peasant tax revolt. This fraud sparked a decade long correspondence of complaints between a group of St. Lucian planters headed by William Muter and the Colonial Office and the Treasury in London. The planters considered the fraud a prime example of administrative lapses and incompetence.
Did you know in 1840, Colonial Secretary, William Hanley obtained leave of absence for a trip to England and Henry Breen was appointed a temporary substitute? A few months after Hanley’s departure, the Lords of the Treasury in London asked Breen for a statement of St. Lucia’s accounts between 1829 and 1837. The Lords said they had repeatedly requested a statement from the various treasurers, they never received one, nor had they been given an explanation beyond the unconvincing excuse that the old books could not be found.
Without hesitation Breen was able to locate the books and provide a full and reliable account of the treasury fraud. However, Breen found himself in an awkward position during his tenure as care-taking treasurer. Between 1840 and 1842, clerks John William Todd and Jean Marin Papin stole money right from under his nose.
One afternoon Breen took shelter from the rain in Todd’s cottage, he walked in on a sumptuous and well-attended dinner party which included a dish of ham boiled in champagne. Breen took Todd aside and asked him how with a salary of £150 per year, he could afford to incur such extravagant expense. His response was that he had inherited a large sum of money from a deceased relative in Barbados.
Did you know it was only when a repentant and ill treasury clerk named Henry Niochet, believing to be on the brink of death, asked to see James Mac farlane who was a member of the Legislative Council to clear his conscience that the fraud stopped? Niochet confessed that for several years William Hanley, John William Todd and Jean Marie Papin had pilfered large sums of money.
James Macfarlane immediately put together a Commission of Enquiry and it was quickly discovered that the colony had been robbed at a rate of about £3,000 every year since Hanley returned from England. For their own selfish motives, these public servants had robbed the colony of £30,000 during a period of twelve years. Upon this discovery, Hanley and Papin made their escape from the island, but Todd was persecuted for fraud and sentenced to one year in prison.
Despite being placed on bail, Hanley and Papin managed to escape and flee to Europe, it was whispered that Lieutenant-Governor Darling conspired in their escape- Hanley being among other things his personal secretary. Although there was no hard evidence to support this, the appearance of a cover-up by the colonial authorities definitely existed in the minds of laborers and planters; this aggravated their distrust in the government. It also supported Henry Percin’s notion that the tax revolt was partly fuelled by the treasury fraud.
Source: A History of St. Lucia by Harmsen, Ellis & Devaux – 2012.
