LICENSING ACT BREACHES

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27801, 28 October 1955, Page 10

LICENSING ACT BREACHES

11 Persons Unlawfully In Hotel LICENSEE FINED £lO Eleven persons were convicted and fined £2 in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday, on charges of . being on licensed premises, the Grand Hotel, on August 18, when the premises were required to be closed. Similar charges against five persons, who pleaded not guilty, were dismissed. Charges against four persons, who did not appear, were adjourned to November 3, by Mr L. N. Ritchie, S.M. The licensee of the hotel, Alexander McDonald (Mr R. Wylie) was convicted and fined £lO for selling liquor after hours. Those fined £2 each were: Abraham Pirihi, Desmond Harold Nash. John Patrick Denny, Reginald John Hooker, Joseph Henry Gundry, Alfred Thomas Doncliff, Vera Marion NisbiL Catherine Gilmore, Ethel Baldwin, Catherine Dunn, and William Connor.

Sergeant R. W. Hope said that on October 18. he visited the hotel :at 9.5 p.m. The door was ajar and three men were arguing. Two of them said they knew they should not be there. As he went up the stairs, a buzzer sounded.

Sergeant Hope said he intercepted four men making from the lounge bar and took their names and adresses. They admitted they were unlawfully on the premises; then the licencee said they were his guests. He did not know their names, and said they were ‘"cobbers of his son.” His son was not there.

In the lounge, there were several Soups of people, said Sergeant Hope, ne man said he was there alone and was no one’s guest. He said he had been looking for a person whom he expected to be a lodger. Three persons told witness they were with guests. Constable J. McCallum, who was with witness, took the names of men at the front door and in the bars.

Of the five persons who pleaded not guilty. Sergeant Hope said that Noeline Gibbons (Mr W. F. Brown) claimed to be the guest of a lodger, Mrs Holsteirx who was playing a tape recording, made by herself. BarMb HafSeiss had said he was a barman at the hotel and was the geust of a Mr and Mrs Kidd. Annie Stella Wright had said she was a cook at the hotel and was the . guest of these lodgers. Edith Thomas had said she was the guest of another lodger. (The latter three defendants were represented by Mr R. Wylie). Jpseph Rae Shaw had said he was the guest of Mr and Mrs Kidd.

Kathleen Holstein said she had invited a friend to the hotel. She had a recording of music at a party on the West Coast. It had been played for the Sergeant. He enjoyed it very much, she said. [Sergeant Hope later confirmed this.] Dismissing the charge against Gibbons, the Magistrate said that the police had rightly brought the action. They could not differentiate. Mr Wylie submitted that Harneiss and Wright were servants and were exempted from the offence, and were lawfully on the premises. These charges were dismissed. After evidence by a lodger, Thomas Hugh O’Conor, the charges against Thomas and Shaw were dismissed. The prosecutor, Sub-Inspector J. J. Halcrow, said that one lodger had claimed that eight persons round the bar were his guests: of these, three had given false names and addresses, and three had since changed their addresses.