ILLEGAL TOBACCO SALES

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25306, 4 October 1947, Page 2

ILLEGAL TOBACCO SALES

MAN FINED £lOO (P.A.) NELSON, October 3. For carrying on business as a tobacco manufacturer at Upper Moutere without a licence, Albert Arthur Lusty was fined £lOO by Mr T. E. Maunsell, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court. Charges of selling 1081 b of tobacco to a man in the Gisborne district, and 1001 b to a man on the West Coast, with intent to defraud the Customs Department of duties, were withdrawn. The prosecutor said this type of offence was difficult to prove, and was highly important from the revenue point of view. The duty on the tobacco would be Ils 8d a lb. Counsel said that a man in Christchurch was found with 501 b of tobacco on which no duty had been paid. It was traced to a man on the West Coast, and then to the defendant. Customs officers and police searched Lusty’s premises, finding various preparations used in the manufacture of tobacco. Among correspondence found was reference to sales in the Gisborne district. When a man at Gisborne was interviewed It was found that he had received a telegram reading: "Dispose of all fruit. Expect visitors." The Magistrate: Uninvited guests. I suppose. For the defendant, it was said that he made tobacco for himself in 1945, but on request allowed two applicants to have some. The price he received was not much more than it cost him to make.