Spenser-Wilkinson J:

The facts and arguments sufficiently appear from the Judgment.

The appellant was charged in the Sessions Court at Kuala Lumpur as follows:

That you on or about 10 August 1949 at Port Swettenham being a public servant to wit RODO No. 418 did attempt to cheat the Customs Department by submitting a false voucher claiming an expense of $202.60 being $38.50 an excess of what was legitimately due to you regarding your transfer from Butterworth to Port Swettenham, an offence publishable under ss. 511 and 420, Penal Code.

The following statement of the facts is taken from the grounds of decision of the President of the Sessions Court:

The case concerns four receipts, P2a, P2b, P2c and P2d, which are allegedly from the Simla Hotel, Penang. These receipts claimed that the accused expended the sum of $38.50 in respect of board and lodging in the Simla Hotel, over the period of 30 and 31 July. The crux of the Prosecution case was that the accused and his family never went near the Simla Hotel. To prove this they relied on the evidence of PW3, the Hotel-keeper of the Simla Hotel, and

PW4, one of his assistants. PW3 stated that he had never seen the accused bef