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Attorney General (Anti-Corruption)". On 14th May, he had a
conference with Mr. Morrin and Mr. Dawson about the Godber case.
He advised that the information which the police had was sufficient to justify him signing a Bank Warrant under section 13(1) of
the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance - which he did. This warrant, authorised the investigating officer
"to investigate and inspect any accounts, books,
documents, safe-deposit box or other article whatsoever kind or description of or relating to Peter Fitzroy Godber, and to require from any person the production of any accounts, books, documents" etc.
Pursuant to this authorisation a circular letter was
sent to 487 licensed banks in Hong Kong requiring them to advise Mr. Irvine whether Mr. Godber or his wife had had any dealings
with them. In such circumstances, it usually takes about one
month for all replies to be received because transactions by a person who does not have an account [such as details of drafts purchased for cash] are much more difficult to trace because
each day's transactions have to be examined in order to discover
the relevant documents. Therefore in order to speed up enquiries, Mr. Morrin sent officers to make personal inquiries at those banks
which the police believed Ir. Godber would be most likely to use.
The first information came from the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Peninsula Court, where lir. Godber
and his wife had a current account and a deposit account in their joint names. The credit balances were:
Current Account Deposit Account
Total
$ 93,281.16 $235,218.28
$328,499.44
By 25th May, the police had also verified that Godber had remitted Canadian $35,000 and by 29th May that he had remitted
Singapore $4,000. According to Mr. Penlington, looking at the
police evidence as a whole towards the end of Hay, it appeared to him that over the last 5 years Godber had either deposited in Hong Kong or remitted overseas approximately HK$650,000 which
sum did not fall far short of his total official net income since
coming to Hong Kong in 1952.
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