BROACHING OF SPIRITS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20389, 21 April 1928, Page 14

BROACHING OF SPIRITS.

A CUSTOMS SCANDAL SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS MADE. LIQUOR GIVEN TO RECEIVING CLERKS. SYSTEM IN OPERATION FOR .......... YEARS. (Special to Daily Times.; AUCKLAND, April 20. Revelations of a practice by which Customs officers in Auckland were alleged to have been stealing whisky, rum, and other spirits were made in the Police Court yesterday when four charges of the thoit of two botles of rum, one bottle of vermouth, and one bottle of whisky were denied by Robert Edward Cooper, aged 58. Cooper admitted four alternative charges of receiving the spirit knowing it to have been dishonestly obtained. Cooper was a receiving clerk, employed by the firm of Messrs E. -and H. Craig, earrlefs, and his employers acted as agents for various importers. It was Cooper’s duty to receive all spirits for cartage, to attend to weighing, gauging, and bond marking, and to help in the examination of the spirit performed by the Customs officials. Other receiving clerks representing other firms were entrusted with similar work. Evidence given by Detective Sergeant M’Hugh showed that the police had been engaged for some time in investigating extensive pilfering and thieving on the wharves. He eaid that, in company with Detective Nalder, he mad© a raid on all the lockers of the receiving clerks at tho three wharves. It was in Cooper’s locker that he found the spirits displayed in court. After they had arrested the accused and taken him to the Central Station 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,” the accused said in a statement to Detective Sergeant M’Hugh. . “I hav© to attend while fh© Customs official gauges and takes out a sample for testing purposes. When that is done I see that the casks arc sealed and sent away to bond. The sample which is taken out of the cask is taken by me to the importing firm which usually gives me a little of the sample in a bottle for myself. Tbe cases of whisky are weighed by me and any light weight cases are put aside and placed tn the Customs examination shed so. that they can b© opened and examined. I attend and open the cases in the pre eenco of the Customs officer, who makes light cases into full ones hy replacing broken bottle with full ones. When the cases are all fixed up and the broken on is are replaced by full ones the Customs officer makes a note of the broken ones so that no duty will be charged. It the usual practice for the Customs officer who does the examining of the cases to give the receiving clerk a bottle of whisky or other spirts for himself. The examining officer cf the Customs usually takes a bottle for himself as well as the one he gives the receiving clerk. This practice has been going on as long as ‘I can remember, and all, receiving clerks _ on th© wharves get their bottles of whisky from the Customs officers while they are assisting to make an examination. Mr W. R. M'Kean, S.M. (interrupting DeiectlVe Sergeant M’Hugh: .during , tho reading of th© statement) : ..No ■ wonder there oas been a shortage. No wonder the detectives have been baffled. Chief Detective Hammond: And all the time we have had complaints of pilfering and theft, and others have been suspected. Resuming his reading of the statement. Detective Sergeant . M’Hugh said the accused stated that one of the bottles of whisky was a sample which came put 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 bottle of vermouth was given to him by another Customs officer three weeks ago when he was assisting in examining cases. One of the bottles of rum was given tn him by Martin King, a Customs examiner, a week ago, when the accused was assisting him in No. 15 shed at Queen’s wharf. The second bottle of rum was given to him by another Customs examiner whose name he could not remember. A certificate was then produced bearing the signature of Martin King, and certifying that seven of 12 bottles in a certain lot were broken. “ That cannot be true, because here are two of the bottles which arc supposed to be broken,” Detective Sergeant M’Hugh said. “This is the sort of thing that has been going on for" some time, and it is extremely difficult to sheet it home to the guilty persons. Chief Detective Hammond: It shows that in some cases ik? Customs officers are to blame. Bottles of spirit which should be in bond are abroad. I do not know how many are adrift. The Magistrate: How is it done? Detective-sergeant M’Hugh: It is quite simple. When the cases are opened the men concerned keep out a few bottles and share them, and they are accounted for by being marked as broken. “ It is very simple,” the Magistrate said, “ and I am quite satisfied there is a very big system in which the alleged breakages are nothing more or less than straight-out thefts. To explain bow the certificate came to be signed, Martin King, Customs searcher, was called to the witness box. How do you account for this? be was asked by the Magistrate. “ Before I see it, the case is opened,” King replied. “ The bottles are thrown on the floor by tho receiving clerks, and sign certificates to tho effect that so many bottles arc broken. The case is opened for the purpose of testing before I. see it. I never gave Cooper a bottle.” Chief Detective Hammond : How do you explain the presence of bottles whicli arc supposed to be broken. King: Someone must have taken them ont before the case came to me, and put the broken bottles back. The Magistrate: Do yon sign the certificate, if you see any sort of broken bottle thrown on the floor? Yon arc responsible for that certificate. Surely you make certain before you sign it? Could the changing of the bottles be done by the receiving clerks? —Yes. What are the lockers in the receiving clerks’ apartments for?—For their tools, I should say. „ . , , . Th© Magistrate: Took oi trade? including broken bottles. Is that it? Are thoy part of their tools? King: Oh no, sir. But it might appear so. The Magistrate: Who handles the case with Cooper before you see it? King; One of the higher officers. The testing is before I take the weight. Cooper or other receiving officers just throw the bottles on the floor and 1 glance at them and sign the certificate, * ‘ The Magistrate; Then it is an extremely easy way of thieving. I must say that you treat your responsibility lightly. Do you regard that certificate only as a matter of form? Witness: It has always been done that way, at least so 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. Giving evidence, .Cooper said that Customs officers had been presenting him

with bottles of whisky off and on for three years—as long as he had been doing that particular work. Asked how the Customs officers who gave him the whisky accounted for them later Cooper replied that they just put them down as “breaks.” Tire Magistrate: Did King give you a bottle?—Yes. He did, and marked it ott as a “break.’’ Mr Hohnden, who appeared for Cooper, said that all work done by receiving agents was done under the eyes of the Customs officers. Unitl the present case Cooper had a clean record, and now ho realised the gravity of the offence of receiving liquor, although before it had not struck him. The system must have been in vogue before the accused came on the scene at all. “ I realise that it is a very serious matter, but I ask you, in view of the circumstances, to deal as leniently as possible with this man,” Mr Hohnden said. Chief Detective Hammond: In a recent shipment of pin 20 per cent, was reported as “ breaks,” whereas we have found it should have been reported as thefts. We have another man coming up in court on Monday charged with the same thing. The Magistrate said he felt that 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 the Customs officers; but some of them had apparently been possessed of a very poor sense of responsibility. “ Here is a certificate produced signed by a Customs officer showing that bottles have been broken, whereas they are shown to me in court.” he said. “ The Customs officer tells me that he sees bottles thrown on to the floor and marks them as breakages. Perhaps he is right, but it seems to me that the whole business needs thorough overhaul.” The theft charges were dismissed, but on the other counts the accused was conviced and remanded to appear for sentence on Monday.