CLEVER PLOTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 99, 29 April 1933, Page 12

CLEVER PLOTS.

FOILED BY POLICE.

SMART SYDNEY ARRESTS

WOMEN DETECTIVES' WORK.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, April 22.

The two great public gatherings at Randwick and at the R.A.S. Show during the past week, naturally afforded opportunity for unscrupulous people to enrich themselves at the expense of others, and the police were on the watch from the outset. The fruits of their vigilance have been seen already in the Courts and in several case.s the legal penalty has been imposed.

At Randwick, acting on "information received," and as a result of complaints from the totalisator officials, a strong body of detectives from the C.1.8., anil a number of policewomen were stationed at favourable points on the ground. The policewomen, who naturally were not in uniform, saw certain men conducting themselves in a suspicious way and at a given moment the plainclothes men swooped down upon tlireo individuals whose movements seemed to require explanation. On one of the men were found a safety-razor blade, printer's ink, a box of rubber number stamps, and other appliances which seemed to point to a systematic attempt at printing or altering totalisator tickets, arid it was on this charge that the three were arrested. Ingenious Process. The police were able to put a strong case before the magistrate and the moil have been committed for trial on a charge of "forgery and uttering." The procedure apparently was. to buy two totalisator tickets—one for a win, the other for a place. Tickets on No. 1 horse were .obtained and the numbers and words were erased; then as soon as the number of the winning- horse appeared on the indicator the winning number and words were filled in on the blank ticket. Tlio process of printing or stamping was quite ingenious, but I think that the "Sydney Morning Herald" has been rather indiscreet in detailiug the operation at some length, and I fancy that the police would prefer to leave it "wrapt in mystery." Anyhow, these disclosures seem to account for the failure of _ the totalisator officials to tracc certain substantial sums which have been written off as "lost, stolen or strayed" in recent months, and'the police are congratulating themselves on having unmasked a decidedly clever plot, which is said to be "the first incident of its kind that has occurred on any racecourse in Australia since the totalisator was introduced." , Gate Money Stolen. The other incident to which I have referred took place at the Showgrounds. On the opening day of the show something occurred to arouse the suspicion of the officials about the takings at the gates. The police were notified, and after watching for four days, they made a eudden raid and arrested eight men— seven of whom are described as "old and trusted employees of the R.H.S." The charges came under two heads—of falsifying gate returns, and of selling tickets more than once. During the "crush" hours at the gates, two people were often allowed to crowd through the turnstiles at once. Each paid 2/, but the gatekeeper kept half for himself, and only one person was registered. As to tickets, the practice apparently was for one of the confederates to pass tickets received at the gate back .to. a car-minder, who sent them on to a ticket-seller outside the gate—the same ticket being thus used several times. It seems that large sums have been stolen in this way, and the show officials pointed out that on the day after the arrests, the receipts were £300 in excess of the returns for the corresponding day of last year, when the city was packed with immense throngs of people who had come down to see the bridge opened. The accused, in some cases, tried to put up the defence that they had been coerced by the threat that if they did not bribe some unknown "racketeer" they would lose their jobs; but the magistrate brushed this evasion aside, and the penalty of three to six months' imprisonment can hardly be regarded as unduly severe.