In addition, the defendant must be convicted of five offenses of theft, under section 383 of the Penal Law, for stealing the goods that were in the five containers that were sent by the supplier Regent, without paying for them. There is no doubt that the defendant's actions in this context constitute taking something "that can be stolen without the husband's consent, fraudulently and without claiming a right in good faith, when he intends at the time of taking the thing to deprive his owner of the thing permanently" (section 383(a)(1) of the Penal Law). The defendant acted to release the containers and the goods in them, with a total value of about $300,000, knowing that the letter of credit would not be honored and that no consideration had been paid to the supplier for the goods he had sent, and thus he should be considered to have taken the goods fraudulently and without a claim of right, with the intention of permanently depriving the owner of the goods.
The prosecution also attributes to defendant 1, as part of the first indictment, offenses against the Customs Ordinance and the VAT Law. The first offense attributed to the defendant concerns the presentation of a certificate that purports to be a real sales account, while it is not, in contravention of section 212(a)(3) of the Customs Ordinance. This is in conjunction with Section 218 of the Customs Ordinance, which defines the parties to the commission of the offense, including the aider, encourager, and advisor.
It would seem that there is no difficulty in determining that defendant 1 committed the offence attributed to him, after it was proven that all the lists were attached to the accounts of the supplier on behalf of the British company Contel, while the real supplier of the goods was none other than the Regent company from Taiwan. The supplier's accounts, which were false, were prepared by defendant 1 or by someone on his behalf, and therefore he should be regarded as the main offender in this context. Therefore, he must be convicted of five offenses, according to section 212(a)(3) of the Customs Ordinance.