DESCRIBED AS MENACE

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 149, 21 March 1934, Page 7

DESCRIBED AS MENACE

Elderly Man in Court ILLEGAL LIQUOR CHARGES By Telegraph.—Press Association. Nelson, March 20. Described by tlio police as a menace to the young life of the city, an old man, William Ashton Roughton, aged 72, was convicted of selling liquor without a license. The police secured a large quantity of liquor and paraphernalia at defendant’s premises, the job of shifting taking five trips of a three-ton lorry. The total quantity of liquor was 920 gallons. Defendant said that some of the liquor seized was 50 years old, and it had been accumulating for many years. The magistrate said he was disinclined to accept defendant’s statement that he gave the liquor away to strangers. The police stated that defendant had been selling liquor to young people for several years, and was a menace.

The magistrate said he would take into consideration the loss sustained by the forfeit of the liquor, ami defendant’s poor circumstances. Except for those facts it was difficult to see why he should not impose the maximum penalty. It was clear that defendant bad been flagrantly disregarding the Licensing Act, and had been making liquor ou a large scale and retailing it to anyone who came along. He had been making a nuisance of himself. He was fined £2O on the first of five charges, and £2O on the remainder.