Chan Sek Keong J

This action arises out of a bold and unusual scheme to defraud either the plaintiffs as customers of the defendants or the defendants as the bankers of the plaintiffs by the use of apparently forged cheques (which I shall hereafter refer to as 'disputed cheques' as the defendants are not sure whether they are forgeries under the law). Not only were the signatures of the bank signatories of the plaintiffs written on the disputed cheques alleged to have been forged, the cheques themselves were duplicate copies fraudulently printed with the same serial numbers as the genuine and unused cheques supplied by the defendants!

The defendants have debited the current account of one of their customers, the plaintiffs in this action, in the total sum of $304,576.70 paid out on the disputed cheques. The defendants are, as yet, unable to deny the alleged forgery of the disputed cheques, how it was done and who did it. Police investigation has up to date resulted in the conviction of two persons (who pleaded guilty) for cheating under s 420 of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 1985 Ed). They were responsible for the cashing of the disputed cheques. But, no one has yet been charged f