BROACHING OF SPIRITS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3867, 24 April 1928, Page 33

BROACHING OF SPIRITS.

A CUSTOMS SCANDAL

SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS MADE.

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 thu theft of two botles of rum, one bottl& 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, employea by the firm of Messrs K and H. Craig, carriers, 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 repi<senting 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 said that, in company with Detective Nalder, he made a raid on all the lockers of the receiving clerks at the three wharves. It was in Cooper’s locker that he found the spirits dispiayea in court. After they had arrested the accused and taken him to the Central Station he made a clean breast of the whole matter.

“XV hen 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 have to attend while file Customs, official gauges and takes out a sample for testing purposes. When that is done I see that the casks are 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 sample in a bottle for myself. The cases of whisky are weighed "by me and any light weight cases are put aside *nd placed in the Customs examination shed so that tney can be opened and examined. I attend and open the cases in the pre sence of the Customs officer, who makes light cases into full ones by replacing broken bottle with full ones. When the cases are all fixed up and the broken on are replaced by full ones the Customs officer makes a note of the broken ones so that no duty will be charged 1 1 is the usual, practice for < the ' Customs officer who does the examining of the cases to give the receiving clerk a bottle or whisky or other spirts for himself lhe examining officer of the Customs usually takes a bottle for himself as well as the one he gives the receiving clerk. his practice has been going on as lone as I can remember, and all receiving clerks on the wharves get their bottles ot whisky from the Customs officers while they are assisting to make an examina-

M’Kean S.M. (interrupting Detective Sergeant M’Hugh during the reading of the statement): No wonder th! r dpt‘ a + • bee ? a sborta " e - No wonder the detectives have been baffled. Chief Detective Hammond : And all the me we have had complaints of nilSPM. d thett - " d i

D?tcct^ ng c ! hiS readin / of tbe statement, Detective Sergeant M’Hugh said the aoc.osed stated that one of the bottles of whisky wa s a sample which came out of a cask of whisky he had assisted to test and gauge about a month ago. It given to him by a Customs gauger The bottle of vermouth was givef t? him by anotner Customs officer three weeks ago Onp n^%r aS K a rj Stinff in exanii ’‘H’g cases. One of the bottles of rum was given to 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 bearin' l the signature of Martin King, and eertithat seven of 12 bottles in a certain lot were broken.

That cannot be true, because here are tw r o of the bottles which are supposed to-be broken,” Detective Sergeant MHugh 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 the Customs officers aie to blame. Bottles of spirit which should be in bond arc abroad. Ido 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 tho 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 lam quite satisfied there is a very big. system in which the alleged breakages are nothing more or less 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 was asked by the Magistrate.

“ Before I see it, the case is opened,” King replied. “The bottles are thrown on the floor by the receiving clerks, and sign certificates to the 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 : How do you explain the presence of bottles which arc supposed to be broken. King: Someone must have taken them out before the case came to me, and put the broken bottles back.

•The 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 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. The Magistrate; Tools of trade? including broken bottles. Is that it? Are they part of their tools? King: Oh no, sir. But it might ap pear so.

Tile Magistrate : Who handles the case with Cooper before you see it ? King: One of the higher officers. The testing is done before I take the weight. Cooper or other receiving officers just throw the bottles on the floor and I 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.”

The Magistrate: Did King give you a bottle?—Yes. He did, and marked it ofl as a “ break.’’

Mr Holmden, who appeared for Cooper, said that all work done by receiving agents was done under the eyes of the Customs officers. Unit! the present case Cooper had a clean record, and now he 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 Holmden said.

Chief Detective Hammond ; In a recent shipment of oin 20 per cent, was reported ds “ 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 tnem 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 thev are shown to m e in court,” he said. The Customs olhcer 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, busin -s needs thorough overhaul.” The theft charges were dismissed, but 011 the other counts the accused was conviced and remanded to appear for sentence on Monday.