WOMAN'S PLAINT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 239, 9 October 1942, Page 4

WOMAN'S PLAINT

BET WITH A "BOOKIE"

MAGISTRATE'S COMMENT

Comment was made by Mr. J. Luxford. S.M.. in the Police C«urt to-day because a woman who made a bet with a bookmaker, and afterwards complained to the police about him, had not been prosecuted.

The case was one in which Tfiomas George Coningham. of Ellerslie, pleaded guilty to a charpe of carrying on the business of a bookmaker on August 29. Defendant was represented by Mr. F. W. Schramm. Sub-Inspector Macnamara said defendant had a fruit and vegetable business. He accepted a bet of 5/ for a win from a woman on a horse called Water Hound. The horse won and paid over £13. The woman was paid £1 5/. She complained that she had not received what she considered to be the full amount of the dividend. Mr. Luxford: Has the woman been prosecuted, too? Sub-Inspector Macnamara: No, sir "Whv not?" asked the magistrate! The "sub-inspector replied that he Tiad no instructions about the matjer. Mr. Luxford: These people bet with bookies, and if they are not paid to their satisfaction they squeal and go to the police. The bookmaker is prosecuted and they go scot free. That is a very one-sided way of administering the law.

Mr. Schramm .said defendant was only a small better, and on the day in question his whole betting amounted to only 1//6. Counsel explained that the woman had beeo paid the correct dividend, as there was a limit of £5 on the race in which she had backed the horse. Defendant was a married man with five children and was a returned soldier.

Mr. Laixfoixl imposed a fine of gg.