£320 IN FINES

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 75, 30 March 1932, Page 8

£320 IN FINES

BOOKMAKERS CAUGHT

BETTING IN HOTELS

HARD TIMES PLEADED

Yesterday ' afternoon. DetectiveSergeant Eevell and Detectives Jarrold, Baylis, and Waterson asked some pertinent questions of four men in the city, and, as a result, Thomas Fisher, aged 47, Edward George Mumis, alias Jim O'Malley, aged 42, James Carson, aged 54, and James O'Hanlon, aged 57, were charged before Mr. "W. H. Woodward, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court to-day with various offences against the Gaming Act. Pines totalling £320 were imposed by the Magistrate. "IN A BIG WAY OF BUSINESS." Eegarding Fisher, who pleaded guilty to bookmaking, Sub-Inspector Ward said that the defendant had been carrying on business as a bookmaker for roughly twelve months. There was a telephone in his house in Wallace street, which was used for the purpose of bookmaking, and in addition he frequented one of the hotels in the morning, when he took bets from people in the bar. He had be^n arrested at his residence yesterday afternoon, and on a memo, pad was found a record of thirty-one bets totalling £38 15s odd. "We regard him as being a man in a big way of business," said the subinspector. "While the police were at his house someone,, no doubt on behalf of the Bookmakers' Association, telephoned and gave the winners and dividends of several races. That is only done to members of the association, who pay for it." Counsel for Fisher denied that his client was in a big way of business. He submitted that the thirty-one bets did not show that the defendant was in a big way of business, for if he was that number of bets would have aggregated somewhere about £300, not £38. The defendant Bore a good character, and in these times of economic depression when it was extremely difficult for a man like the defendant, with a wife and one child, to get work there was a much bigger temptation to embark on an enterprise of this sort than in ordinary times. CAUGHT FOR SECOND TIME. Munns also, pleaded guilty to bookmaking, and about him Sub-Inspector Ward said that he had been bookmaking for some years past, betting! chiefly about the Royal Oak Hotel. When he was arrested yesterday the defendant had £64 19s in cash and £11 in cheques on him. He also had a note book which showed he had taken 492 bets, mostly for 5s and 10s. The book showed that he had taken 78 bets for yesterday, totalling £44 16s. The defendant told the police that he was an agent for a larger bookmaker, and this was so in 1930, when he was convicted for bookmaking. The police were not sure that the' defendant was still an agent on aceount,'of his having so large a sum of money on him. If he were an agent there would be no need for him to wait for the banks to open, which was the defendant's explanation for having the money in his possession. Munns was,a married man with eleven children, and his character was good. '' EXTRAVAGANT GESTURES. '' "It is all very well being hard on these men," said counsej for Munns. "We notice all over the country that some Magistrates are making extravagant gestures and imposing .extravagant fines, but I submit that these gestures only shock the public conscience in a time such as the present." Counsel stressed the difficulty of a man such as the defendant, faced with the responsibility of keeping a wife and eleven children, only one of whom was working, getting work. His only alternative to bookmaking was labouring work, and at £1 6s a week this would result in the State being forced to keep the defendant's children. "BOUND TO UPHOLD LAW." "I don't propose to say anything about- these cases except that I am bound to uphold the law," Mr. Woodward said. Fisher, who had not been m trouble before, was fined £100, in default two months' imprisonment, and Munns, who has a previous conviction for bookmaking, was fined £200, in default four months' imprisonment. I "I wouldn't object to a short space of time, but if these men were struck for a double for these amounts they would pay forthwith," remarked' SubInspector Ward when asked if he had any objection to time being allowed the defendants to pay. The Magistrae allowed Fisher a! fortnight to pay, and Munns a month. BARMAN FINED £20. A barman, James Carson, aged 5i admitted using the bar of the Foresters' Arms Hotel for the purpose of betting and he was fined £20, in default one month's imprisonment. Sub-Inspector Ward said that the accused had been taking bets for Fisher for some time. He was a silver bettor and had not come under the notice of the police before. James O'Hanlon, aged 57, another barman, pleaded not guilty to using the bar of the Royal Oak Hotel for the purpose of betting, and he was remanded until Bth April.