Bookmaker fined $750

Press, 12 March 1983, Page 5

Bookmaker fined $750

A self-employed builder convicted of carrying on the business of a bookmaker, was fined $750 by Judge Frampton in the District Court yesterday. In fixing the penalty the Judge told Barry William Prisk, aged 41 (Mr M. J. Glue) that he had taken into account that it was the defendant’s third conviction for this particular offence within a period of four years. Prisk was ordered to pay the fine immediately, otherwise he would be sent to prison for six weeks. The maximum penalty for bookmaking is three months in prison or a $5OOO fine. Sergeant W. J. McCormick said that as a result of information received police visited a city address on March 9 where they found a number of betting records hidden near a telephone. From the time of entry by

the police a number of telephone calls were received, some of which asked for the defendant by name. Fifty-six bets, to a value of $l4OO, were recorded on a pad, said the sergeant. Prisk admitted having taken a number of bets himself while others had been taken by another person. For Prisk, Mr Glue submitted that a fine, rather than imprisonment, would be the appropriate penalty. The two previous convictions against his client occurred close together four years ago, he said. This time, he said, Prisk provided the service for a small clientele in a betting syndicate. The bets were taken for a one night meeting at Addington. The operation was on a comparatively small scale, he said. Mr Glue said Prisk had

been straightforward with the police and realistic in his plea. He had not had to put forward the time-worn excuse that the defendant was only acting as a bookmaker's agent, said Mr Glue. FRAUD CHARGE A man facing a charge of fraud, involving almost $5OOO. was remanded on bail to March 18. Paul Anthony Powell, aged 35, is charged with obtaining $4991 from the State Insurance Office by falsely representing that household contents to the value of $14,470. destroyed by fire at 17 Jervois Street on October 2, last year, were his own property and the subject of a household contents insurance policy with the company. The charges relate to the period between November 17 and December 23 last year. Powell did not plead.