IMPERIAL THORPE CASE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 197, 21 August 1929, Page 12

IMPERIAL THORPE CASE.

CONSPIRACY ADMITTED. BATES AND HOLLAND PLEAD GUILTY. PROCEEDINGS AGAINST DOWLER STAYED. (By Telegraph.—Special to "Star.") CHRISTCHURCH, Tuesday. At the Supreme Court to-day charges of conspiring to defraud, preferred against Samuel Bates, Leslie Holland and Thomas James Dowler, jn connection with the%acing of the horse known as Bruce under the name of Imperial Thorpe, in various towns in the South Island, were heard. In his charge to the grand jury Mr. Justice Adams said three men were indicted for an alleged conspiracy in. connection with what was commonly known as "ringing in" a horse on racecourses at Invercargill, Gore, Ashburton and other places. Two of the men (Samuel Bates and Leslie Holland), said the judge, had made a statement. There was no doubt that they were actively concerned in some way with the horse. The third man, Thomas James Dowler, was in a different position. The conspiracy, which was indictable, was a conspiracy to commit a crime. The Crown said that the three men conspired by making false statements that the horse entered as Imperial Thorpe was Imperial Thorpe and not another horse named Bruce, and that they conspired in order to obtain money won in races. Dowler did not seem to have had anything to do with the conspiracy. He did not seem to have anything to do with the running of the horse, but he was present when the other two bought the horse and witnessed a signature. He appeared to have taken advantage of the knowledge he obtained to make one or two bets on the totalisator, with probably but little advantage to himself. • The grand.jury, returned a true bill. When the case was called Bates and Holland both pleaded guilty and Dowler not guilty. The Crown Prosecutor, Mr. A. T. Donnelly, said there was very little evidence against Dowler, and he proposed to apply for a stay of proceedings. His Honor agreed to this, saying it was a case in which he would have been bound, if it had gone to the jury, to tell the jury that there was 110 ease. Bates and Holland were remanded for sentence until Thursday. The horse Imperial Thorpe was impounded by the stewards of the Canterbury Park Trotting Club on the second day of the club's winter meeting at Addington, June 3. A sequel occurred in the Magistrate's Court-011 June 0, when Samuel Bates, labourer and horse trainer, aged 36, registered owner of Imperial Thorpe, was charged that, with intent to defraud, he attempted to obtain from the Canterbury Trotting Club the sum of £159 in money by means of a certain false pretence, by falsely representing that a trotting horse nominated as Imperial'Thorpe was not identical with the trotting horse Bruce. Leslie Holland, aged 28, trainer of Imperial Thorpe, appeared on~a similar charge: