NAVY DOCKYARD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 206, 1 September 1933, Page 3

NAVY DOCKYARD.

'BETTING CREEPING IN' MOTOR DRIVER FINED £5. COUNSEL ON POLICE TACTICS. Arrested earlier in the week at Do von port by Detectives Mills and Hamilton on a charge of carrying on the business of a bookmaker, Robert Henry Harding, aged 53, motor driver, appeared before Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., in the Police Court this morning. Mr. A. V. Fraer represented Harding, who pleaded guilty. Detective-Sergeant O'Sullivan said on August 10 a Devonport constable telephoned Harding and asked him for a 10/ bet on a horse named King March. Later two other constables saw him and placed bets with him, and subsequently arrested him on warrant. One of the constables received a dividend. "Harding is only in a email way of business and is really a silver better," added Mr. O'Sullivan. '"He has been working in. the. Navy dockyard at Devonport, and has been acting as agent for another person. He has never been in any trouble before." "This is not the ordinary case of bookmaking," said Mr. Fraer. "Owing to the Navy dockyard not being a public place I am forced to plead guilty on Harding's behalf. It is with some reluctance that I do so. Harding lias been the ' mug ' of the party. Someone had to ring up for the bets, and he did so. Two constables had to work in the dockyard to catch him. I must say I do not appreciate the tactics of the police. Both constables worked on a piano case at the dockyard before they got a bet on." Mr. Fraer added that Harding had been suspended and was in great danger of losing his position. He was a man with a pood record, and counsel trusted the magistrate would not treat him as an ordinary bookmaker. Detective-Sergeant O'Sullivan said that betting was creeping into the Navy dockyard, and the naval authorities did not like it. Harding was fined £5.