CONDUCTED LOTTERY

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 104, 26 January 1933, Page 7

CONDUCTED LOTTERY

Relief Worker Convicted The story of. a lottery where the prize money was not immediately forthcoming was related by Senior-Ser-geant 11. 11. Butler in the Petone Police Court yesterday, when Edward Asher,-relief worker, pleaded guilty to a charge of conducting a lottery by which the prize money was gained by chance. Asher was convicted ami discharged by Messrs. A. Anderson and A. Coles, J.P.’s. Senior-Sergeant Butler said that Asher was chairman of a relief workers’ social committee which had raffled a gold nugget to the value of about five guineas. No permit had been obtained. When the raffle had been, drawn, the winner found that the prize money bad been spent on behalf of the club. Since then, however. £l/14/- had been paid to him by the committee. Asher had accepted sole responsibility, although the committee as a whole could have been charged. There was no question of the funds having been misappropriated.

For defendant. Mr. W. Hay admitted the facts outlined by the senior-ser-geant. There were 17 members on the committee, he said, which had authorised the raffle, and the three men who had given the information to the police were members of the committee. The club bad incurred various debts for its social functions, and since the winner of the raffle was a committeeman, it had been decided to pay the debts before paying the prize money. Had the winner of the raffle been an outsider, defendant would have arranged for him to have been paid promptly.