Great frauds in history: Farrow’s Bank

Thomas Farrow set up his eponymous bank in 1901, offering high interest rates to small savers. After falsifying the accounts and collapsing the bank, he was convicted of fraud in 1921.

Thomas Farrow was born in Catton, near Norwich, in 1862. He left school at the age of 13 to take up an apprenticeship to a solicitor. Although he passed all the necessary exams, he decided in 1881 to go to London to work as personal secretary to W.H. Smith, the leader of the House of Commons. He later took a similar position with Robert Yerburgh, the president of the Agricultural Banks Association. After writing a book in 1895 that criticised bankers for offering poor value, he set up the Mutual Credit and Deposit Bank in 1901, followed by Farrow’s Bank in 1904.

What was the scam?

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Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri