POLICE RAID SEQUEL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 262, 4 November 1944, Page 6

POLICE RAID SEQUEL

GUILTY OF BOOKMAKING RIDER ADDED TO VERDICT (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, Friday. ' '.On a charge of carrying on business as a bookmaker, Arthur Leonard Albertscn, aged 46, was found guilty in the Supreme Court to-day. The jury retired at 12.30 p.m., and returned at 3 p.m., adding a rider to their verdict that they considered the present law regarding bookmakers should be amended. The case was the sequel to a police visit to Albertson's premises on Grand National day. Mr. H. F. O'Leary, K.C., of Wellington, who appeared for- Albertson, said, that the important point was whether a bookmaking business was being carried on, and was it being carried on by Albertson. He was not seen on the premises, and had not been found there at the time of the police raid. Certain of his belongings had been found there, but that was not to be wondered at, as he had been in partnership at one time with a man named Chisnall. A man named Munro had been found on the premises. He had been charged, pleaded guilty, and was fined for carrying on business as a bookmaker. Mr. O'Leary submitted that the Crown's case was lacking in proof on the vital point that it was Albertson who was conducting the business. In his summing up his Honor, Mr. Justice Northcroft, urged the jury not to consider the irrelevant matters of whether the law was wise or unwise in making bookmaking unlawful. It was not a matter for the jury's consideration. The complete absence of a defence, stated his Honor, suggested that there was an impertinence in presenting the case to a jury at all.