"AUDACIOUS FRAUD"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 30, 4 August 1939, Page 11

"AUDACIOUS FRAUD"

AUSTRALIAN FINED

TIPS FOR RACE MEETINGS

"There is one born ev^ry minute," but according to remarks made by the police during the hearing of a case in the Magistrate's Court today, New Zealand has more than her fair share of fools. An Australian, John Dalley, pleaded guilty to a charge of making it appear that if application were made to Godfrey's Turf Service, the address being a P.O. box number at Wellington, information and advice would be given with, respect to betting on a certain horse race. It was alleged that through 4his means ( he had obtained qver £100 in fees from people throughout the Dominion. Dalley was convicted and fined £50, to be paid forthwith. The prosecution was conducted by De'ctective-Sergeant P.' Doyle, who said that Dalley, who arrived in New Zealand by the Awatea on April 11 last, was known as a racecourse tipster. On arrival in New Zealand, he conceived the idea, with another man, also an Australian, of earning money by a method other than honest work. He started what was known as Godfrey's Turf Service, and went to a firm of printers in the city and had 7000 circulars printed in the name of the service. Mr. Doyle read to the Court one of the circulars. "Seven thousand of these were printed at the instigation of the accused," he said, "and of these over 2000 were sent to persons all over New Zealand. The accused frankly admits that he received over £100, in fees from persons to whom circulars were sent and who paid to become clients. In some cases where he supplied names of winning horses he sent memoranda saying that he required the sum of £10 for the next winner to be supplied, and in certain cases he received these amounts." AVOIDING DETECTION. The accused rented an office in the city and selected names from postal and telephone directories, it was stated, and he employed a girl typist to deal with the correspondence. His- instructions to the girl were that when she went to the post office to collect the mail she was to take a taxi to another part of the city, dismiss it, and then take another to the lounge of a hotel, where she would give the mail to the accused. This arrangement was. made to avoid any suspicion of detection by the police. Following complaints made to the police and investigated by Detective-Sergeant W. McLennan, the accused disappeared from the city and was alleged to have gone to Auckland. He subsequently came to Wellington j after obtaining legal advice, and he ] paid a visit to the detective office, yesterday with counsel and surrendered himself to Detective-Sergeant McLennan. "I submit that this is ah audacious fraud perpetrated by a man who prefers an easier method of obtaining money to that of honest work," said Mr. Doyle, "He came over here from "Australia with no knowledge of horse racing in New Zealand. I presume he could not have any knowledge to enable him to forecast winners to race in New Zealand, not having any knowledge of horses running here. I submit that the offence is one which deserves punishment to the maximum provided by the law. "It is not very often that we have a man of this class appearing before the Court, a man who comes over here for the purpose of taking down foolish people—l cannot describe them as anything else. They say that 'there is one born every minute,' and it is quite apparent that we have more than our complement in the Dominion, seeing the number that have been in communication with the accused and have paid to receive information which is absolutely valueless." Counsel for Dalley (Mr. F. W. Ongley) said that the accused was a clerk in an office which supplied turf information. He came over to New Zealand and met an Australian who suggested that a similar business should be set up here. The accused did not prepare the circular, and was simply a clerk in the office. When the trouble came the other man disappeared and left Dalley to carry on. Dalley brought £200 to New Zealand and made nothing out of it. He did not come to the country to break the law, and was induced to go into the business because so far as he knew he was not breaking the law. One could pick up a daily paper in New Zealand, said Mr. Qngley, and see a list of horses that were expected to win • at, coming race meetings. In this particular case, either by luck or by good management, as a result of the information obtained by the service, it was able to give the people who joined actual winners of races. Dalley was not the prime mover in the affair.

In imposing sentence, the Magistrate (Mr. J. L. Stout, S.M.) said that the offence was a fairly serious one, and seemed to have been a fairly widespread fraud. He did" not intend to impose imprisonment, but future offenders would have to face that.