CHARGES DISMISSED

Evening Star, Issue 22620, 12 April 1937, Page 11

CHARGES DISMISSED

INTERESTING LICENSING CASE ENDS MAGISTRATE'S COMMENT Dismissing all charges against the defendants, Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M., this morning brought an end to a case which first came before the Police Court last December, and created interest because of the question raised as to the admissibility as evidence of statements given to the police by defendants. The case was one in which Albert Norman Hope and William Robert Morrison (Mr A. G. Neill) were charged with being unlawfully on licensed premises after hours, and Thomas Francis Mackie, licensee of Branson s Hotel, tor whom Mr Neill also appeared, was charged wih selling liquor after hours, exposing liquor for sale after hours, and keeping his premises open after hours for the sale of liquor. . Reviewing the evidence, the Magistrate said that Morrison was a foreman at the Fire Brigade Station, but was on leave at the time. Although his name was entered in the guest book after the police visited the hotel, it did not necessarily mean that he was not a bona fide boarder. On the evidence before him he found that on the night in question Morrison was a boarder. There were discrepancies in the evidence given by Hope, but there were circumstances under which ho obtained his meals frequently at the hotel. Taking this into consideration, along with certain other factors in connection with the charge against Hope, the magistrate found that he was also a bona fide boarder on the particular night. The charge against each of these defendants and those against the hotelkeeper were dismissed. The Magistrate said he wished to reiterate bis comment made during the hearing of the case that it did not reflect credit on the hotelkeeper that he was serving in the bar at so late an hour. He should have, taken other jneans oi serving. guests §.uch am hour.