A curious case of fraud was proved against Wong Yue-zung, a teacher, who appeared on remand at the Mixed Court on Monday and was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment. There were several charges against him of having represented himself to be a police officer, or an official of the S..
Revenue Department, for the purpose of unlawfully obtaining money from the proprietors of licensed houses.
It appeared from the evidence that accused obtained the numbers of the houses drawn at the recent "closing lottery," and_proceeded to pay them a visit. He is believed to have visited some 60 licensed houses. In each case, he told the proprietors that he was an officer of the Council and had come to take their photographs, or "make some other arrangements," in view of the closing order, which would enable them to do business elsewhere. The "other arrangement" was the payment of various sums, of from $2 to $20.
Accused denied having represented himeelf to be an officer of the Council. He visited the-houses "as a newspaper man," and wanted the photographs for pub: lication. He did not ask for money. It was given to him as a present.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.