"LAST CHANCE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 100, 1 May 1933, Page 9

"LAST CHANCE."

GAMING HOUSE RAID. WARNING BY MAGISTRATE. KEEPER FINED £100. "This will be your last chance, Curran, as you have been here twice this year. If you come up again, you will probably go up above," said Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., in the Police C our t tn ' s morning, when he fined Thomas Curran £100, or three months' imprisonment, on a charge of using premises at 115, Hobson Street as a common gaming-house. Curran, described as a fruiterer, aged 55, and two young men, Joseph Dempster Cox, 25, electrician, and a youth were arrested by Detective-Sergeant McHugh, who, with Detective Miller, raided Curran's house on Saturday morning and executed a search warrant. . Curran pleaded guilty. Cox also pleaded guilty to, a charge of assisting in the management of a common gaming house. The youth did not plead. Mr. Mahoney appeared for all three men. Detective-Sergeant Mcllugh said the police had received complaints, and as a result a constable had been detailed to , make bets with Curran. The constable had no difficulty in making bets. When the raid was carried out Curran was found in a room behind the shop. There was a telephone installed and another in an office upstairs. The sum of £93 3/ in notes and silver, as well as three ' cheques for £49, £7 and' £4, were found. Up till 11.30 a.m. 234 bets, of the total value of £134 19/. had been taken. ' In addition to other betting material ; found on the premises there were about 30 accounts all ready to be forwarded to ' unsuccessful punters. "There is no sug- " gestion that Curran has been 'welshing,' " said Mr. McHugh. "He is an , honest man, who always pays out. Curran says that the young man had only been assisting him for a couple of hours. I He has never been up before."

"Ho was hardly there long enough to know what it was all about," said the magistrate, in. dismissing the charge against the youth. Concerning Cox, Detective-Sergeant McHugh said he had been fined for being found in the same gaming house early in January last. Mr. Mahoney said that, apart from doing a little'bookmaking, Curran was an eminently respectable citizen. "This is purely a technical type of offence in this country," said counsel. "It seems a paradox, while art union tickets can be purchased all over the town and the wheels of the totalisator on racecourses are revolving as fast as they can. I would ask your Worship to take into consideration the good character of Curran." . ,■ : "He knows he is breaking the law, said the magistrate. He fined Curran £100 and Cox £10.