DEFRAUDING THE CUSTOMS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 186, 5 February 1914, Page 5

DEFRAUDING THE CUSTOMS.

AX INGENIOUS PLAN-; By Cable—Press Association—Copyright j Received 4, 2.20 p.m. ' Melbourne, February 4. •Judgment was given in the case of I Iwmewan, Wright and Co., against t'ic '» Victorian Savings Bank Commissioners I for £1515. ' { Charles Heath, while shipping clerk for plaintiffs, was in the habit of receiving blank signed cheques for payment of customs duties, tilling in the, proper amounts when ascertained. Heath got tne delivery of the goods and then pretended the owners had changed tho'.r minds, intending to re-ship and export them, so that no duties would be payab'e. Heath procured cases similar to those, whereof he got delivery and filled '.he-i! wit I rubbish and had them shipped, mill. Fslisfied the customs as to t'.ie export of dutiable goods. The cheques viieicon the plaintiffs claimed were banked to Heath's own account. The Chief Justice said it was quite cl.'ar his employers were innocent of any participation in Heath's frauds, When it wav found thai money was owin>,' to the customs for dutiable goods, Pefmewan, Wright and Co. paid it all in cheque? drawn payable to the customs, or bearer, and crossed. He could not understand how the Bank failed to suspeet the transactions. The least inquiry would have disclosed the fraud.