“NEEDS OVERHAUL”

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 10566, 20 April 1928, Page 5

“NEEDS OVERHAUL”

SYSTEM OF CUSTOMS EXAM--INATION OF SPIRITS SENSATIONAL ALLEGATIONS CLERIC BEFORE COURT GUILTY OF RECEIVING SPIRITS DISHONESTLY OBTAINED MAGISTRATE ASTOUNDED AT SYSTEM IN' VOGUE. (frees Association. i AUCKLAND, April 19. Sensational allegations were jiiade in tho Police Court to-day, when Robert Edward .Cooper, aged 58,. pleaded not guilty -to tour charges lof theft of] two bottles of rum, one bottle of Vqi'inouth, and one bottle of whisky, ■ arid' guilty to four alternative charges of receiving thd spirit' knowing it to" have been dishonest-s ly obtained. Accused was receiving clerk employed by carriers who acted as-agents for various importers. ; Evidence given by Detective-Sergt. McHugh showed’ that the police had been engaged ion some time in investigating extensive pilfering and thieving on wharves. Hp said that in company with Detective Haider, he made a raid on all the lockers ol the receiving clerks at the three wharves. It ' was in Cooper’s locker that he found the spirits displayed in court.’After they arrested accused, and took him. to the central statmo. he made a clean breast of the whole matter. “When casks of spirits arrive they have to go to the Customs examination shed to be gauged and tested” accused said, in :i statement to De-tective-Sergeant McHugh. “I have to attend while the Customs official gauges and takes out a simple for testing purposes. When that is done I- see the casks are sealed, and sent away to bond.. The sample which is. taken out of the cask is taken by me to 1 the importing firm, which usually gives me a little of the sample in a bottlq for myself. A ,case, of whisky is weighed.by me, and any light weight cases are put aside, and placed in the Customs examination shed, so they c-an be. opened and' examined. I attend and open the cases in the presence of the 'Customs officer who makes the lightcases into full ones by replacing broken bottles with full ones. When the cases are all fixed up/ and the broken ones are replaced-by full ones, tho Customs officer makes a note of the broken ones so that the duty will be charged, lit is the usual practice for the Customs officer who does the examining of the case to give the receiving clerk a, bottle of. whisky or other spirits for himself. The examining officer of Customs usually takes a bottle for himself, as well as the one he gives to the receiving clerk. This practice has been going on as Jong as _ I can remember, and all the receiving; clerks on the wharves get their bottles of whisky from the Customs officer while they are assisting to make an examination.” Air AY, S. AlcKean, S.M. (interrupting Detective-Sergt: McHugh during the reading of the statement) : No wonder there has lieen a shortage. No wonder the detectives have been baffled. Chief Detective Hammond: And all the trine we have had complaints of pilfering and theft, and others have been suspected. Resuming the reading of the statement, Detective-Sergt. McHugh said the accused stated one of the bottles or whisky was a sample which came out of a cask of whisky he had assisted to test and gauge about a month ago. It was given to him by a Customs gauger. The l:pLtle of vermouth was given to .Info by another Customs officer three weeks ago when he was assisting in examining cases. One of the bottles of rum was given to him by Alartin King, a Customs examiner a week ago when accused was assisting him in No. 'ls 'shed at Queen’s wharf. The second bottle of ruin was given to him by another Customs examiner whose name he could not remember. A certificate was then produced hearing the signature of Martin King, and certifying that seven of the twelve bottles in a certain lot were broken. - “That cannot be true because here are two of the bottles which ,ar supposed to be broken” DetectiveSergt. McHugh said. “This is the sort of’thing that' has been going on for soe time, and it is extremely difficult to sheet it home to the guilty persons. Chief Detective Hammond: It shows that in some cases the Customs officers are to blame. Bottles of spirit which should he iu bond are abroad. I do not know how many are adrift. The Magistrate: How is it done? McHugh: It is quite simple. When the cases - are opened the men concerned keep out a few bottles and they are accounted for by being marked as broken. “It is very -simple” the Magistrate said, “and I am quite satisfied. tilery is a very big system in winch alleged breakages are nothing more than straight-out thefts.” To explain how the certificate came to be signed, Martin King, Customs searcher, was called to the witness box. “How do you' account for this?” he Avas asked by the Magistrate. “Bfef'pre I see it tlie case is opened King replied. c ‘Tlie bottles are throw'll on tho floor by the receiving clerks, and -I sign certificates to tho effect that so many bottles are broken. The case is opened for the purpose of testing, before I see it. I never gave Cooper a bottle. Chief Detective Hammond: Hoav do you explain the presence of the. bottles which are supposed to bo broken? King: Someone must have taken them out before the case came to me, and put the broken bottles back. Ibe Magistrate: Do you sign the certificate if you see any sort of broken bottle thrown on the floor? You are responsible for that certificate? Surely you make certain before you sign it? Could the changing of boftles be done by the receiving clerks?—Yes. The Magistrate: Who /handles- tho case with Cooper before you see it?— One of the higher,officers. The testing is done before I take- the weight. Cooper or other receiving officers just throw the hbttleis on the floor and I glance at them and sign the certificate. - The Magistrate: Then it is an extremely easy w r ay of theiving. I must say you treat your responsibility lightly. Do you regard that certificate only as a matter of form?—• It has always,'been done that way, • at least as far as I know. “Then it is high time the Customs Department made some drastic alteration to 'its methods of handling this stuff,” the magistrate declared: AVhen giving evidence Ooop/er said the Cnstoms officer had been presenting hiiti with- bottles of whisky off and on for three years, as long as he had been doing; that particular work.; Asked how Customs officers who gave him .whisky accounted for them ■ later, Cooper replied, -“They just put, them down as breaks”’ The Magistrate: Did King give you a" bottle ?— Yes, he-did, and .-markedit off as a. “break.” Mr Holmden, who appeared for Cooper, said all the yvorlr done by the receiving agents was done under; the eyes of the • Customs’ officers. Until the present case Cooper had a clean record, and now he realised the grayitv of the offence of receiving tho liquor,- although before it had not struck him. The system , must have been in vogue before the accused came on the rcene at all.

“I realise it is a very serious matter,. Jcfut I ask you in view of tlie circumstances, to deal as leniently as possible -with tho mail.,” Mr Holmden said Chief Detective Hammond said: In a . recent shipment of gin 20 per cent was reported as breaks, where,as we lutve found it. should have been reported as thefts. We have another man coming up to Court on Monday charged wi 1 h tho same thing.. ) : 1 ■ The Magistrate said bo felt there must be some truth at least in what Cooper had said. The (work of the receiving clerks was open and was done in the presence of Customs officers', but some of them had apparently been possessed of a very poor sense of responsilf/ility. “Here is a certificate produced and signed by ri Customs officer showing that bottles have been broken, whereas they are shown to ine in court-,-’ lie said. “The Customs officer tells me that he sees the bottles thrown on to the floor, arid marks them as breakages. .Perhaps ‘he is right, but it seems to ‘me the whole business needs a thorough'overhaul.” ” .Tho theft charges were dismissed, Writ on the other counts accused'was convicted and remanded ■ to appear for (sentence next Monday. *.