"FESTERING SORE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 182, 4 August 1931, Page 8

"FESTERING SORE."

BOOKMAKING BUSINESS. CHIEF JUSTICE'S COMMENTS. FALSE TELEGRAM CASE. SENTENCE OF NINE MONTHS. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) " WELLINGTON, this day. Alfred Jansen, restaurant proprietor, of Wanganui, who was found. guilty last week •of attempting to defraud Peter Hcaley of £83 5/, and that with intent to defraud by false pretence by means of a false telegram he attempted to obtain from Healey a sum of money, was sentenced by the Chief Juetice, Sir Michael Myers, to-day to nine months' imprisonment. Accused admitted that the telegram which lie had handed in at the Te Aro Post Office had been taken out of the main Post and Telegraph Office at the Wellington G.P.O. after its arrival there and altered by him in the tramway waiting oflice opposite. "Prisoner at the bar," said his Honor, "I shall take into consideration the fact that since the announcement of the verdict you have made a very full, and, I believe, truthful statement of all the circumstances connected with the fraud in which you participated. At the trial 1 formed the opinion that the fraud was conceived by a more cunning and astute brain than yours, and it appears clear from your statement that the opinion was correct. Nevertheless, you were a willing tool, and you participated in the crime with your eyes open. I shall take into consideration, however, the fact that you were not the originator of the fraudulent scheme. "As I said to the Grand Jury last week, I have no right to express any opinion as to whether the business of a bookmaker should be legalised or whether, as now, its carrying on bhould be prohibited as an offence against the criminal law. That is a matter for the Legislature, but I have not only a right but a duty to point out that the present surreptitious carrying on of the business of bookmaking is a festering soie in the vitals of the community, as is disclosed by the circumstances of this case and of other cases that have from time to time come before tl\e Court. It offers a premium to the perpetration of fraud and dishonesty, and what is far worse, it is calculated to lead, as it lias led in this case, to the corrupting of officers in a most important branch of the public service." His Honor went on to say that the corrupting of two oiliccrs of the telegraph service he regarded as the gravamen of the offence, but he took into consideration that it was not arranged by prisoner personally. While the law remained as it was its observance should be enforced. The term of imprisonment imposed was nine months.