Peter Fitzroy Godber-Biographical details
Mr. GODBER was born in London on 7th April 1922. He served as a police constable for 4 years in the Hast- ings County Borough Police Force. In August 1952 he was appointed a probationary sub-inspector in the Royal Hong Kong Police Force. He was promoted to Assistant Superintendent in 1955; and to Chief Superintendent in July 1969. Upon his return from vacation leave in November 1969, he was appointed Chief Staff Officer/Traffic; and, on 1st December 1971, he was posted as Deputy District Police Commander, Kowloon i.e. 2nd in command of Kowloon District.
In January 1972 GODBER submitted an application to retire early on 2 grounds (1) his wife's ill-health and (2) that he felt that his own physical standards had deteriorated. His application was approved; and he was due to proceed on retirement leave on 20th July 1973.
On 11th May 1973 he wrote to the Commissioner of Police requesting that his departure date be advanced to 30th June 1973. This request was refused. He was informed that he might vary his departure date 7 days either way from 20th July, but no further. By then, the Commissioner was fully aware of the inquiries being made by the Anti-Corruption Office; and this was the determining factor in his refusal to accede to GODBER's request to be allowed to leave Hong Kong on 30th June 1973.
Mr. GODBER's gross salary for the period 10th August 1952 to 31st May 1973 was $891,993.24. But, in this inquiry, I am more concerned with his net salary (i.e. what he received in his hand after deduction at source of rent of quarters, widows and orphans fund, etc.). His total net salary for the whole period of his service was $767,236.54. A schedule giving details of each year's salary is attached to this report and marked “B”.
Mr. GODBER had a considerable amount of paid leave due to him. His salary for the period 1st June 1973 to 27th March 1974 (the end of his accumulated leave) would have been $71,070.97.
Assuming GODBER would live to be 70, he would have drawn $605,208.81 i.e. in respect of the period 28th March 1974 to 7th April 1992, by way of pension.
If he had commuted one-quarter of his pension, he would have been entitled to take now $104,895, and for the period 28th March 1974 to 7th April 1992 (again assuming he lived to be 70), he would have drawn $453,906.61.
In June 1973, GODBER lived in a Government quarter-Flat 14, Block "A", No. 8 Caldecott Road.
The Police case against Mr. Godber
In late April 1973, Mr. SUTCLIFFE (the Commissioner) received confidential information that GODBER was remitting money abroad. Through Mr. DAWSON (the Deputy Commissioner), this information was passed to Mr. MORRIN, who had been appointed Director of the Anti-Corruption Office on 26th March 1973. The initial in- vestigations were carried out by Mr. IRVINE.
For the past year or two, there has been an arrangement whereby the full-time services of a legal officer have been made available to the Director of the Anti-Corruption Office; and on 1st May 1973 Mr. PENLINGTON was appointed "Assistant to the 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 Mr. GODBER would be most likely to use.
The first information came from the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Peninsula Court, where Mr. 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
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