HONEST "PUNTER”

Evening Star, Issue 22686, 28 June 1937, Page 14

HONEST "PUNTER”

ALLEGEDLY OVERPAID AN UNWANTED CHEQUE A cheque for £SB 15s was recently received by the Whangarei Racing CSub from a man who considered that he had been overpaid after backing a winner at the club’s Autumn Meeting. “ When checking over my dividend on Prince Acre on the first day,” the man wrote, “ I discovered I had been overpaid to the extent of £SB 15s, for which sum I enclose my cheque.” The writer—a resident of Frankton —added a postscript to the effect that he would be watching the newspapers “ to see if any of the Whangarei committeemen had died of fright.” _ The surprise which the receipt of this - communication caused among members of the racing club executive can well be imagined. Full inquiries were instituted, and a complete recheck showed that the amount invested on Prince Acre,_ the winner of the Stewards’ Handicap, and the dividend paid out to ticket* holders on that horse balanced exactly. The system in operation at the to* talisator house makes it possible fb ascertain with certainty if all the tickets issued are returned, _ and if a discrepancy occurs in the dividend paid in any race. Other investigations made by the Committee proved that the totalisatop figures for the? meeting tallied in every way. The only possible manner' in which an over-payment might have occurred, it was considered, was for the cashier at the pay-out window to have detected a mistake in balancing after the race and made good tha difference out of his own pocket. Tha magnitude of the sum involved, how< ever, discounted this theory. , The honest " punter M has now been informed that a recheak has failed to reveal any shortage in the totalisator returns for the race, and that apparently he made an error in computing his own dividend. In returning the cheque, duly cancelled, the committee expressed appreciation of the man’s action. One member of the executive suggested that the cheque should be framed and hung in the racing club office.