BOOKMAKER SENT TO GAOL

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 103, 2 May 1914, Page 15

BOOKMAKER SENT TO GAOL

BETTING ON A RACECOURSE. (HI TELEGRAPH PRESS ASSOCHTION.) AUCKLAND, Ist May. On the charge against Joseph Pointon at the Magistrate's Court this morning, that, being a bookmaker, he made bets at Ellerslie racecourse on Easter Monday, Detectives Ward and Lorrance gave evidence that Pointon kept one position between 12.15 p.m. and 2.40 p.m., while they at the same time kept a watch on him from the grandstand a hundred yards away. In that time they saw eighteen people go up to Pointon, hands appearing to meet each time. Pointon put one hand in his pocket and then made a note on a piece^ of paper. The witnesses then went up to Pointon, and Detective "Ward took his race-book and asked him to go with them to the stewards' room. On the way he dropped an envelope and a card giving the horses and weights of some Christchurch races. There were no significant notes on the race-book, but on the envelope were notes of betting transactions on races that day, accompanied by initials. When arrested next day, Detective Ward said that PointOn remarked, "You fellows would hang a man, but I will be a bookmaker all my life." Mr. Singer, for the defendant, submitted that the actions noted might have been those of a member of the pub' lie who was in company with friends at the races and was sharing bets on the totalisator with them. Mr. Frazer, S.M., decided that unless the defendant went into the box and gave a satisfactory explanation of the actions noted, there must be a conviction. Mr. Singer intimated that he would not put his client into the box, and his Worship stated that a conviction must be recorded. Defendant's record showed that he had been three times previously convicted for betting. On the present charge he would be sentenced to two months' hard labour.