BOOKIE FINED £100.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 292, 10 December 1925, Page 10

BOOKIE FINED £100.

COMMON GAMING HOUSE. RAID AT FRANKTON. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) I HAMILTON, Wednesday. • On a charge of having kept a common gaming house at Frankton Junction, Selby Robson was to-day fined the maximum penalty of £100. ■ Constable Doyle, of Te Awamutu, stated that he wrote to Robson under the' name of William Taylor, and asked him to forward his conditions for receiving bets, and also his code. These were posted to witness. He made a number of bets with Robson. Robson's house was then raided by the police. There was a delay of fifteen minutes 'before the door was dnened, and witness heard people run- j ning about inside. While the police were \ in the house for.two hours 32 telephone, calls were received. Witness answered . tl>e telephone. Most of the inquirers i insisted y on speaking to Robson himself, j One said he wanted to invest money on ] a. race. Others wanted to know the result of races. The telephone was situ- i ated in an up-to-date ollice containing . a printing press and a large quantity of stationery. ■Constable Gibbison eaid a number of .race cards with doubles were found in a 'grate. . ; » -y Constable Peters said he found five 'race cards under the linoleum in the office. The telephone rang almost continuously while he was in the house. Mr. Tompkina (for accused) submitted that the police had failed to prove the identity of the accused as a man who had accepted bets, and that they had failed to prove that betting was con- : ducted in accused's house. He contended "that all the people who did business j were betting with Robson personally,! and that the evidence did not identify j the premises as a gaming house. Alter hearing evidence the magistrate' •said it led him irresistibly to the conclusion that Robson was a bookmaker. As to whether the business was localised at his house, the facts showed that -accused had an opportunity of destroy-! ing incriminating documents in a quarter of : an hour during which the police were' kept waiting before they were admitted; Many incriminating documents were.found, some secreted under the linoleum and in the ashes of the grate. Cards had been sent out by accused giving his house telephone number, and that was evidence that his betting business was connected with the house: Accused would be convicted. Detective Sweeney said that Robson was in a very big way of business, and for five years had done no other work, i The magistrate said he was satisfied ! that defendant had been carrying on a substantial business, as was shown by the size of his. bank "deposits, which had not been explained. The only' way to check these men was to make it too expensive for them to take the risk. I Robson was also charged with publishing a doubles ihart, and for this he was I convicted and ordered to pay costs £4 17/.