ILLEGAL LOTTERY

Evening Star, Issue 22004, 13 April 1935, Page 6

ILLEGAL LOTTERY

SALES ORGANISER FIMED POLICE DUB SCHEME A FRAUD [Pik United Press Association.] /-AUCKLAND, April 12. For selling tickets in an illegal lot* terv which the police described as “ undoubtedly a fraud,” a young woman, Ada Ball, was fined £2 and costs by Mr F. K. Hunt, S.M., in the Police Court, on a charge of selling tickets at Napier on February S in a lottery which was prohibited by' the flaming Act. Mr Noble appeared for the defendant, who pleaded guilty. Senior Detective Hall said that on January 16 last Miss Ball answered an advertisement in an Auckland paper, and as a result" she was engaged as sales organiser by a man who engaged her under the name of “ J. S. Burke.” Burke made arrangements for the printing and numbering of tickets in. an illegal lottery, and on January Hi Miss Ball left Auckland in a motor car with four others and commenced a tour of the North Island, selling tickets ati Thames, Taufanga, Te Puke. Opotiki, and Napier. At Napier the party came under the notice of the police, who obtained over 400 books each containing forty tickets at 6d each. Senior Detective Hall said that 500 hooks of tickets were actually printed, the proceeds from the sales by the other four sellers ’ were paid to Miss ■ Ball, and the total amount of the sales before they were stopped by the police was about £26, “ The defendant says this amount was expended in the payment of wages to herself and a commission of 33 1-3 per cent, to the cricket sellers,” said ’ the senior detective. “The tickets purport to be in aid of a fund to help poor and needy children, which is a pnrase used by the Community Sunshine League in Auckland. The lottery tickets show, that the winner of the lottery will get a bungalow valued at £SOO, and that as a result £SOO would go towards the funds for the maintenance of children’s health camps. As the Sunshine League in Auckland is the only bona • fide oragnisation expending money in the maintenance of children’s health camps, the' Sunshine League has received numerous inquiries asking when its art union was being drawn. As a result the police have received a complaint from the Sunshine League about this alleged fraud.” Mr Noble produced a reply from “ J. SF Burke,” asking Miss Ball to call and see him about the position. She did so, and received full instructions. She assumed that everything was quite all right, and took on the job of sales organiser. Miss Ball had to remit the money to Burke at his private box, and did actually remit £2 9s to him. The rest of the proceeds went in ex-, penses on the motor tour. Miss Ball received a salary of £3 per week and expenses. “ It might he a low-down fraud, hut mv client had nothing whatever to da with the introduction of this lottery,” said Sir Noble. “ She was trusting and confiding, and this man Burke must have been a plausible person.” Mr Hunt: She should* have gone t«* the police or some other reliable place and found out about the lottery, aud also whether it was honest. She will have- to be more careful in the future. Miss Ball was fined £2 and costs. “ I would like to have a word or tw« with this Mr Burke.” said the magistrate. “So would be all,” replied Mr Noble.