A SLY-GROG CASE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 3, 3 July 1926, Page 23

A SLY-GROG CASE

WHISKY SOLD TO CONSTABLE.

The alleged unfairness of the methods employed by .a constable in securing evidence of "sly-grog" selling was the- subject of comment by counsel during a case in the Magistrate's Court yesterday afternoon, when George Charlton Hick pleaded not guilty to selling liquor without a license. . : Constable Johnson gave evidence that on the evening of 17th April, he went to Hick's Shop in Courtenay place on a motor-cycle, and dressed in motoring clothes. He - asked Hick for a bottle ot yfhiaky and was told that "it was not kept now.V' After further talk, Hick told Witness he would get. some for him, and Trent to the, telephone. Witness left the shop and came back some time later, when Hick handed him a bottle of whisky, for which he asked 16s. This was paid for out of a £1 note which witness had been given by Seniof-Sergeant Butler, of the Taranaki Btreet police, station. - Mr. H. F. O'Leary (for Hick):/'Did you tell Hick you wante4 it for an urgent purpose ?"-r-"No." . "For someone, .very,.sick?"^-"JTo." . "If Hick says "you did say that, will you deny that?" —"Yes" - "And if he says you suggested ringing up an hotel for it, you will deny that also?"—" Yes, I never mentioned it;" "You never mentioned anything about ringing up an hotel?"—" No. He went to the telephone and rang." ' "Was not that after you had implpred him to get it for you?"—" No." "And before you left the.shop you heard him ringing?"—" Yea." ' , "Are you telling the truth, constable?" —"Yes, most decidedly." "When you came back, did not Hick say ,to you, 'I have managed to get -a' bottle of whisky from a friend?" —"No, he; just said, 'Here you are/ and handed me the .bottle." "He says he gave you-7s change out of the £1 note." —"No,- he charged me 165." >. '. •■-..■-■ ■■ .. - Senior-Sergeant Butler gave evidence of a search of Hick's premises, from which no other liquor was discovered. Hick had denied selling any whisky to Johnson. Mr. O'Leary said that it seemed'apparent that the alleged offence had been deliberately manufactured by the' constable to get the whisky from''Hick. There was no corroboration of his story. According to1 Hick, Johnson suggested to-him' that he should ring the hotel to get some whisky .as he wanted it ■ for . .an urgent cause. Hick, after some' 'arguing, yielded to Johnson's importunings nnd rang up an hotel, but was refused the liquor as it: was after hours. A former employee of Hick's, who was' in the shop at the rear, then said- he had a bottle of whisky and that he was willing to let Johnson, have it. .Thereupon, when. Johnson returned, Hick sold him the liquor for the same price as it was bought for by Hick's friend, 13s. . ' Hick, in the box, gave evidence jm the lines of counsel's statement. Wlien- the senior sergeant searched, tlic place,. witness was not. asked anything about selling liquor to Johnson, and therefore did not. say anything about it, as he had given him tlio liquor merely to oblige a man in apparently urgent need of it. To Sub-Inspector Harvey, Hick admitted . two previous., convictions .for selling cider in greater quantities than is permitted, and one conviction for selling whisky without a license. Frank Key, who was in Hick's shop When Johnson came in, gave evidence of having given Hick the whisky to give to Johnson. He had bought it for his own consumption. The Magistrate (Mr, K. Page? S.M.I, said that tho evidence seemed to indicate that Hick had been guilty of selling the whisky illegally. A conviction would be entered. •

On Mr. O'Leary's submission that Hick was out of work, Mr. Page ordered him to gome up for sentence, if called upon, within two years.