CO129-607-1 Enquiry into loss of public money 22-5-1948 - 26-10-1948 — Page 18

ENCLOSURE 1

18

To:

Sir,

The Honourable the Colonial Secretary, Hong Kong.

5th June, 1948.

We were appointed by His Excellency the Governor to inquire into

certain losses of public money reported by the District Officer, New

Territories, on the 12th May, 1948, and to make such recommendations as

we saw fit.

FACTS OF THE CASE.

(2)

(i)

The agreed facts of the case under inquiry are as follows:-

On the 10th May, 1948, Mr. D.W. Jones of the

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(ii)

(iii)

Audit Department carried out a surprise inspection of the

accounts at the head office of the District Officer, New

Territories. A copy of the report of this inspection is

attached as Appendix 1.

t

On the 11th May, 1948, at about 12.45 p.m., Mr.

Chung Tse Chuen, a shroff in the District Office, presented

for endorsement two cheques, one for $20,040.24 and another

for $8 to Mr. J. Wakefield, District Officer, South, together

with a bank paying-in slip for $6,734.95. Mr. Wakefield did not

notice the amounts for which the cheques were drawn. The last

occasion on which Mr. Chung Tse Chuen was seen by any member of

the District Officer's staff was at 2.00 p.m., ön, that day when

he asked a District watchman to stand by in order to escort

him to the bank. At about 2.30. p.m., Mr. Chung Tse Chuen

cashed the cheques in question at the Kowloon Sub-agency of the

Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank. He was well-known there and the

bank shroff later identified him from a photograph. No inquiry

was made in the district Office on that day as to the subsequent

disposal of these cheques.

On the following day Mr. Chung Tse Chuan failed to

report for duty. The clerk in charge of the District Office

Accounts, Mr. Au-Yeung Man, who had noted on his date block

for 12th May that escorts were required to take a sum of

$20,040.24 to the District office, Un Long, rang up the