"BOOKIES" WHO BALANCE. I

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 135, 9 June 1910, Page 9

"BOOKIES" WHO BALANCE. I

BACKERS HAVE NO REMEDY,

THE SOLVENCY RISK. j

(By Telegraph.-Press Association.)

WANGANUI, Wednesday. A decision of great importance to the bottinc; fraternity ras given by Mr .us tin Edwards at the Supreme Court this afternoon

M, tho Marcb races a bookmaker nara ed Earns was plyinj? his calling. Hp laid what was described as an absurd price about the favourite. Lady Lucy Tho favourite won. and Barns declared that he was "broke." He offered to repay. . deposits to the extent -or the money in his bap. and to pay the balance at the Rutland Hotel in the evening. He paid out all the available money, and was then arrested on a charge of theft. Previous to the race starting, but after the betting had close.d. Barns was seen to hand a bundle of notes to his clerk. Coakley, who then disappeared. ( oakley and Barns were brought before the stipendiary magistrate, who sentenced them to ore and three months' imprisonment respectively. They appealed, and the sentences were held in abeyance pending the appeal, which was heard to-day. Mr. Justice Edwards said no jury •would convict on such evidence, and quashed the conviction without calling iipon the defence. He said that in order to succeed the Crown must prove that the accused at the time of taking the deposits had formed an intention of stealing them. The Crown Prosecutor: There would lie great difficulty in this case ware it not for the fact that accused was making away with his money. His Honor: He had not the money on him, but it does not matter where it was. In concluding, his Honor said that wnen a depositor's money went into a bookmaker's possession it really became the bookmaker's property. The depositor risked the bookmaker's solvency, not necessarily his respectability.