Judge wants change to Racing Act

Press, 12 November 1981, Page 3

Judge wants change to Racing Act

PA Tauranga The New Zealand Racing Conference and the police should look at the terms of the Racing Act covering the banning of people with criminal records from racecourses, said Judge Wilson in the District Court at Tauranga yesterday. Judge Wilson said thatsuch a ban was for life unless a person made an application to the Racing Conference to be permitted back on racecourses. The time was long overdue when a person who had

stayed out of trouble for five years should no longer be prohibited from going on a racecourse, he said. Before Judge Wilson was Dobby Randell Houltham. aged 24, a domestic purposes beneficiary, of Rotorua, who denied charges of being unlawfully on a racecourse having been convicted of burglary and theft, of using obscene language, and of resisting a constable. Judge Wilson discharged Houltham on the charge of being unlawfully on a race-

course but convicted him on the other two charges. Houltham was fined $2O for using obscene language and $5O, with $6.50 witnesses’ expenses and $4O compensaThe police gave evidence that Houltham was told to leave the Tauranga racecourse during a meeting on October 13. He refused to go, used obscene language in spite of a warning that he would be arrested if he continued, and had to be removed. In the struggle a detective’s trousers were damaged.