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Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 261, 3 November 1932, Page 5

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BETTING AT WHIPPET RACES. WELLINGTON CONVICTION. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. The hearing was continued to-day of the charge of bookmaking at a Sunday whippet race meeting against Lawrence Chapman, aged 28, who appeared for trial before the Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers. Mr. A. B. Sieywright, for the defence, said that accused's conduct did not come within the legal definition of the conduct of a bookmaker. To carry on the business of a bookmaker did not mean having a few bete at a sports meeting. Assuming the woret, the prosecution only showed that he had made a few bete with his particular friends for small sums. Although it was illegal to carry on the business of a bookmaker, betting in iteelf was not illegal. There was no evidence that accused had facilities for bookmaking. The Chief justice in his summing up said if the jury felt that the evidence could be accepted, it was ample to ehow that accused was carrying on the business of a bookmaker. If a man was in the habit of making constant bets-with a number of people, whether friende or notj he was carrying on such a business. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, with a recommendation to leniency on the grounds that the offence wae an isolated case. His Honor said that while he would give considerable effect to the jury's recommendation, he declined in those cases where a person was charged and convicted of bookmaking to deal with them on the basis of a fine. He felt that persons charged with these offences and fined regarded the fine ae nothing more nor less than a license fee. Accused would be sentenced to a month's imprisonment without hard labour.