Department, Shanghai Municipal Council, had nothing tọ say in H.M. Police Court yesterday morning when Mr. C. H. Haines, H. M. Registrar, preferred five charges of fraudulent embezzlement of monies received by him on behalf of his employers, in the period between October 12 and December 12, 1939. He requested that the hearing be adjourned so that he could seek legal advice and the next hearing thereupon was set for December 28.
Mr. G. H. Wright, who prosecuted, told the court that' besides the case on which the present charge was based, there were a further 149 cases in which the accused was alleged to have collected the money and given receipts to the parties concerned, without, however, accounting for the money thus collected.
Tsu wang-sze, an amah employed at House 6, Lane 273 Kiaochow Road, was the first witness to give evidence. She said that a little over a week ago, her mistress gave her $40 to pay for municipal rates which were being colicced by a foreigner to whom she paid $97.80, receiving $2.20 in return. The foreigner, witness stated, was along at the time. Asked whether she could see the foreigner in court, she said that not remembering him, she could not identify him.
Kwang King-bei, of 845 Markham Road, and Wan Tso-sz, of 139A Robison Read, gave similar evidence and said that they could not identity the foreigner who had collected the rates from them.
Sen Ching-new, owner of a shop situated at 4702-4103 Robison Road, who was next called said that the foreigner who had collected rates from him on November 28 wore a dark suit which appeared to be a uniform He also wore a uniform cap, witness stated. Asked whether he could identify the man to whom he had paid the money, he pointed to the accused in the dock but added that, while he thought that it was he, he could not be certain.
Sung Ken-wan, of 4701 Robison Road, said that he paid $14.04 to a foreigner on November 28. The man to whom he paid the money, witness added, wore a dark suit and what appeared to be a felt hat. Asked whether he could identify the man in question, witness said that he had very weak eyes but that he would try and walking around in the court room, he stopped in front of the dock and pointed to the accused, saying: "That is the man."
Mr. Wright said that these were the only five cases which had been shroffs and when asked what the daily duties of accused consisted in, witness stated that he attended office at 745 a.m. daily to sign the attendance register and to issue approximately 50 receipts to each of his 17 shroffs. At-8 am. the accused and his shroffs would leave in hire-cars to a given point in their district and the duties of the accused merely consisted in supervising and assisting his shroffs. At 11.30 am, witness continued, accused came back to the office by car to check unpaid receip.s with the money collected. This money is then handed over to the Council's compradore by the accused and the Number One shroff. In the afternoon, accused had duties to perform in the office while the shroffs continued their work in the same manner as in the morning. Uncollected amounts being checked with money brought in by the shroffs at 3.30 p.m. when it was again handed over to the Council's compradore office.
In reply to a question from the prosecution, witness stated that no controlling check was exercised over the accused but that a clerical assistant of the Revenue Office checked at least not once but many times twice or three times each week. Asked further regarding the method ample ed by the clerical assistant in checking the various assistant inspector: witness said that a list of fifteen or more receipts is prepared at random and the assistant inspector in question is asked to produce them. There was a complete check towards the end of each quarter, however, but this could not be done weekly in view of the fact that each assistant inspector has in his care some 15,000 receipts.
The misappropriations with which the accused is charged, witness continued, extend over the period from October 12 to December and witness had personally satisfied himself that in the 150 cases listed by the prosecution, money was paid each time and the receipt delivered by the accused.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.