LIQUOR AFTER HOURS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 123, 26 May 1928, Page 17

LIQUOR AFTER HOURS

HOTEL LICENSEE FINED A visit to the Shamrock Hotel a few minutes after 6 o'clock on a recent Friday evening by Sergeant Hill and Constable M'ln tosh was described 'in the Magistrate's Court yesterday afternoon, when Thomas Moran, the licensee, was charged with selling and exposing liquor after hours. Reginald Davis, ithes barman, was charged with'supplying iiquor to a person not entitled to it, and-George. Lambert Wisnesky was charged with being illegally in tiio lioI tel after hours. AH three defendants pleaded not: guilty. Sergeant Hill gave evidence tlitit after being admitted by Moran, lie :md ■tliCitfoiistablc-.weiit through to tin; l>ai-k bar where, they found tlireo men in front of the counter. A barman nunicd Lee was behind the bur. Tlie.ru was nothing to show that liquor had been .consumed, but liquor was exposed bo--hind the bar. Tin; three men said that they were lodgers, but later they •admitted that this was not true. .. One said to witness: '.'lt is a fair catch, we 1 arc not staying here." When the 'licensee re.turnedi'rom getting the lodgers' b00k,.-witness - told him of the men's admission and he said: "They are friends of^mine. Don't be too hard on them." • While1 witness and Moran were in tho public bar, the constable came, in and said that two of the men had disappeared. A search was made for them, but they could not be found. Moran then said that he knew nothing of the .men, and that he did not know they were in the hotel. Wisnesky asked . for a drink, and, despite.the sergeant's advice, Moran,- Davis,- and Wisuesky had a drink.1' No money j)assed. Wisnesky again Siiid that he was a lodger, but. this was found to be incorrect. '■ '■ . Constable M'lntosh .also gave evidence, ..■'■'. The Magistrate (Mr. B. Page, S.M.) agreed with Mr. J. J. M'Grath, counsel for tho defendants, that there had been no evidence of selling liquor, and this information was dismissed. Davis, in the box, said that he supplied liquor to Wisnesky at Moran's request. He did not hear tho sergeant tell Moran not to supply Wisnesky with liquor, but he heard someone tell the sergeant that Wisnesky was a boarder. , Leo said that he was putting tho bar in order and the three men were in the room. lla did not take any notice of them.. He thought that Moran knew they were there. Counsel-submitted that tllere. was nothing "in the nature of trading, and the'explanation of the men's presence in the bar w,as that they had just returned from the lavatory. The Magistrate said that the liquor was exposed and the natural inference was that the men were there to get it. Moran was fined £5 on tho charge of exposing the liquor; Davis was fined £1 for supplying the liquor, and Wisnesky was fined; £2 for being illegally on the premises. The Magistrate remarked that,it. was.a very human act to supply the liquor, under, such unusual cireuni'. stances, but if "was,-■nevertheless, -an. unlawful one. ■ , i