FREE WHISKY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20127, 21 April 1928, Page 7

FREE WHISKY

A MYSTERY SOLVED Doings on Auckland Water* Front “BREAKAGES EXPLAINED.” [Per Press Association J AUCKLAND, April 19. Sensational allegations were mad# m the Police Court to-day when Ruoert Edward Cooper, aged 58, pleaded not guilty to four charges of the theft of two bottles of rum, one bottle of vermouth, and one bottle of whisky, and guilty to four alternative charges of re reiving the spirit knowing it to hav< boon dishonestly obtained. Accused was a receiving clerk cm ployed by the carriers who acted at agents for various importers. Evidence given by Detective-Ser-geant McHugh 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 h< made a raid on all the lockers of th' receiving clerks at three wharves. E was in Cooper’s that he found the spir its displayed in Court. After they arrested accused and look 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," accused said in his statement to DetectiveSergeant McHugh. “I have to attend while a Customs official gauges and takes out a sample for testing purposes. When that is done 1 see the casks arc scaled 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. Caso whisky is weighed by me and any light weight cases are put aside and placed in the Customs examination shed so that they can be opened and examined. I attend and open cases in the presence of a Customs officer. It is the usual practice for the Customs officer who does the examining of the cases to give tho receiving clerk a bottle «f whisky or other spirits for himself, and tho examining officer usually takes a bottle for himself as well. Mr W. R. McKean, S.M. (interrupting Detective-Sergeant McHugh during the reading of tho statement): No wonder there has been a shortage. No wonder the detectives have been baffled. The Magistrate: I am quite satisfied there is a very big system in which th< alleged breakages are nothing more oi less than straight, out thefts. To explain how the certificate came to be signed Martin King, a Custom! searcher was called to the witness box “How do you account for this," he wm asked by the Magistrate. “Before I sec it. the case is opened,* King replied. “Bottles are throwi on the floor by the receiving clerks and I sign certificates to tho effect that so many bottles arc broken. 1 never gave Cooper a bottle." When giving evidence Cooper said the Customs officers had been presenting him with bottles of whisky off and on for three years, as long as he had been doing that paaficular work. /Asked how the Customs officers accounted for the whisky Cooper replied: “They just put them down as breaks." Mr Holmdcn, who appeared for Cooper, said all the work done by the receiving clerks was Jone under eyes of Customs officers. Until the present case Cooper had a clean record, and now he realised the gravity of the offence of receiving the liquor, although before it had not struck him. The system must have been in vogue before accused camo on the scene at all.

The Magistrate said he felt that there must bo some truth at hast io 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 responsibility. It seemed to him the whole business ncxled a thorough overhaul.

The theft charges were dismissed, but on the other counts accused was convicted and remanded to appear for sentence next Monday.