BANKRUPT CHINESE

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1638, 7 May 1925, Page 5

BANKRUPT CHINESE

THREE CONVICTIONS ENTERED.

PROPER BOOKS NOT KEPT.

(By Telegraph. Press Association.) AUCKLAND Wednesday.,

After a brief retirement the jury returned a verdict of guilty on three indictments preferred against a young Chinese, well known in commercial and athletic circles, Chan Shiu Fong (Mr McLiver), at\the Supreme l Court this morning. V - . The three indictments were: (1) Having failed to keep, proper books of accounts; (2) having, -while bankrupt contracted a debt of to Radley and Co., and £SO to the Pacific Trading Co.; (3) having, while an undischarged bankrupt, contracted h debt of upwards of £2O to Ross and Glendinning. On a fourth indictment, which the foreman stated had not been considered by the jury, Mr Justice Alpers made an entry of not guilty. This charge was that, while an undischarged bankrupt accused had obtained credit from Macky, Logan, Caldwell, Ltd., to an amount upwards of £2O. Fong was remanded for sentence till Monday next, at 10 a.m. In 1922 Fong was a fruiterer and market gardener at Hawera. Creditors pressed him, and issued a bankruptcy petition, but he disappeared, leaving a letter to the clerk of the Court, in which he asked that the business be sold and matters settled. Fong owed a considerable sum at this stage, said Mr S. L. Paterson, in opening the case for the Crown. Next, he commenced as a fruiterer at Morrinsville, trading under the name of Sun.. He dealt with firms to whom he was then owing money. A commercial traveller discovered that Sun was Fong. In August, 1923. Fong was served with a bankruptcy petition and adjudicated. Fong disappeared, and was found in Wellington. Next he was found in Whangarei, where he opened a silk and fancy goods shop under the name of the Shanghai Trading Company. Representing that he was in partnership with the company, he incurred several debts. When told that he was a bankrupt, Fong, said he was only manager for the company. However, said Mr Paterson it would be shown that Fong was the Shanghai Trading Company, no other person being interested in it. R. S. Save, deputy official assignee at Hawera, deposed that accused had not kept proper books. The proved debts amounted to £383, about £BO of which were Morrinsville debts.

Mr McLiver stated that Fong had a system at Hawera whereby he knew what his financial position was. It was usual for Chinese to put names other than their own on shops. Some of the debts contracted while Fong was bankrupt had been paid. When Fong incurred the debts he honestly thought he could pay them. Had he been allowed to continue he would have been able to pay.