TOTALISATOR TICKETS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 68, Issue 142, 29 March 1948, Page 2

TOTALISATOR TICKETS

Forgeries Discovered in Auckland £ISOO PAID OUT IN TWO DAYS (P.A.) AUCKLAND, March 28. Racecourse forgeries on an extensive and increasing scale have been carried on by operators on the Auckland Racing Club’s totalisator for nearly a year. During this period the club has. been losing at each of its meetings large sums of money paid out on forged £5 win tickets.

The police now have forged tickets valued at about £ISOO from the Ellerslie course. These are all from only two days’ racing since Christmas, indicating that the fraud had been on a large scale. Before that, the club had followed the usual practice of destroying tickets after they had been paesd for payment. The police were thus unable to retrieve all forged tickets on Avhich payment was made at previous meetings. It is stated that the method adopted by persons concerned in the forgeries was to buy genuine £5 tickets, and when the race had been run to change the number to that of the number of the winning horse. A small plant used to 'alter the number on the tickets was secreted in an outbuilding on the course.

The forgeries were investigated by Senior-Detective F. iN. Aplin and De-tective-Sergeant M. J. Ross. A special effort was made by these officers on Saturday, and they were assisted by Detectives O. L. Freeman and W. A. Austin. As a result of their inquiries two £5 win tickets representing a payment of £47 12s 6d on two races were confiscated. One ticket was presented at a totalisator window after the first race, and the other after the second race.

Comparatively few cases of forged dividend tickets have been reported in Auckland before.' In 1932 three forged winning tickets were discovered at Alexandra Park after a trotting meeting. A forged ticket was detected by a clerk at the following Avondale fixture. All the tickets were ingenious imitations, the only difference being minute variations, in the signature endorsed on them. An arrest was made on that occasion, and the offender was convicted of attempting to obtain from the Avondale Jockey Club £7 10s by falsely representing that the totalisator ticket was a good and valid order for the amount. After confiscation of the tickets on Saturday three men were arrested. They will appear before the Court on charges of theft from the Auckland Racing Club.