A BEDROOM BAR

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 103, 1 May 1926, Page 8

A BEDROOM BAR

WIDOW BEFOEE THE COUET.

Police suspicions that Mrs. Charlott Amelia Fairchild, a widow, was carrying on the business of a "sly-grogger" at 38, Cambridge terrace, were confirmed when a young constable visited the premises in plain clothes and purchased beer without any trouble. This was the story told in the Magistrate's Court yesterday afternoon when Mrs. Fairchild pleaded guilty to a charge of selling liquor without a license. Evidence was given by Constable Johnson that he visited the defendant's house in plain clothes on five occasions and had twice purchased beer from Mrs. tfairchild, paying 2s per bottle for it. On the evening of 2nd April, witness asked the defendant "if sne could oblige," and she said that she was out of beer and only wished she had got in some more, as there would have been a ready sale for it.

Senior-Sergeant Butler said that when he searched the house, in company with Constable Hayhurst, he found eighteen bottles of beer in the bedroom. Under the stairs witness found a trunk containing twenty-two more bottles of beer. In the scullery were 67 empty beer bottles. Witness said that the defendant told him that her boarders used to order large quantities of beer and she would pay for the liquor on delivery, being afterwards reimbursed by the boarders.

Mr. P. J. o'Began, for the defendant, pointed out that the fact that the ale was usually obtained on the orders of the boarders showed that she was not carrying on the sale of liquor to the extent indicated by the number of bottles found.

The Magistrate (Mr. J. G. L. Hewitt, S.M.): "It is. highly probable that some of the beer went to the boarders. However, I think there is evidence to show that liquor was sold illegally. The defendant will be fined £10."