MACAU, Oct 9 : The Chief Cashier at the Macau branch of Banque Indosuez was charged Tuesday with embezzling 12 million Patacas (1.5 million US Dollars) to pay for his gambling habit, the police said here, reports AFP.

The suspect, Surnamcd Wong, was arrested last week and accused of stealing the money since 1987 by forging customers signatures, police in this Portuguese colony said.

The alleged crime was discovered in August when Wong was on holiday, they said, adding that the bank had recovered about half the money.

The General Manager of the French bank here, Carlos Nunes, refused to give any details of the case, saying only : "we participated in the investigation Sy police."