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It would seem that Mr. Tsang On Wing rarely went to this safe and when he did so he would have no particular cause for looking to see that the reserve cheque books
was there.
Mr. Moosa was not concerned with cheque books and would not know whether or not a reserve should be there.
The General Office is deserted during tiffin hour except for one shroff who usually remains at the counter and whose back would be turned to the safe, and an Indian Sergeant of Police whose duty it is to keep an Ixx eye on the strong room.
It would be quite feasible for anyone who was known to be on the Treasury staff to approach the safe and to remove the reserve cheque book. The clerk Yeo, for
instance, would have free access to the safe as his
book
collection was kept in it.
The cheques could be abstracted in a few minutes by an experienced person and the book replaced before the end of the tiffin hour. It is quite probable that the book could be taken away for a couple of days without its
absence being noticed.
It seems highly probable that the cheques were taken in this manner either by the perpetrator of the fraud or by an accomplice in the Treasury.
While this lack of precaution in the custody of the cheque books might render the theft of blank cheques and easy matter it seems that it would not, in the event
have been of the signatures proving to /forged, be such negligence aswwould estop repudiation of the cheques (see The
Kepitigalla Rubber Estates Ltd. v. The National Bank
of India, Ltd., (1909) 2 K.B. 1010 and other cases
mentioned in that report), though of course a defendant bank would essay to make much capital out of such
circumstances.
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