BARMAN GAOLED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 11, 14 January 1944, Page 3

BARMAN GAOLED

LIQUOR WITHOUT LICENCE

A barman who sold a bottle of ■whisky in a hotel to a serviceman for £5 10s, after which the police seized a carton containing nine other bottles behind the bar, was sentenced to 21 days' imprisonment by Mr. J. L. Stout, SM today. He was Gordon Thomas Wilkie, 45 (Mr. G. I. Joseph). Senior-Sergeant G. J. Paine said it was not the usual case of selling liquor without a licence—the accused had sold liquor during working hours that was not the property of his emA serviceman said he heard the accused offer to sell a bottle of whisky for 20 dollars yesterday. When he approached Wilkie later he wanted £6 for a bottle, but an offer of £5 10s was accepted. Sergeant G. E. iCallaghan said that on the way to the police station the accused said he had been selling the whisky for another person. He said that he was the mug—he was making only £1 a bottle. Mr. Joseph submitted that no offence had been committed under the Licensing Act. The liquor had been sold before 6 o'clock on premises where liquor could be sold. Admittedly, the accused was not allowed to sell liquor on his own account, but the police had not proved that he did so. v The accused, in evidence, said he did not know the real owner of the whisky. It was brought in yesterday afternoon by a carrier. He was told he could sell one or two bottles and that the owner would call at 5.30 for the money and the other bottles. To Senior-Sergeant Paine the accused said there was no shortage of whisky so far as publicans were concerned. Hotels had been getting £6 and sometimes more a bottle for the genuine whisky—not "Hokonui." . The Magistrate said the accused had certainly sold liquor without a licence —it was not the licensee's whisky.