CROOKS’ CLUB

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 April 1929, Page 3

CROOKS’ CLUB

UNDERWORLD HAUNT. “T&is club was the haunt of many of thp most undesirable characters in the city,” said Mr Digby Seymour, at Liverpool Police Court, in prosecuting the farnworth Members’ Club, Farnwprth Street, for the illegal sale and consumption of intoxicating liquor. Alfred Jaipes Brierley was fined £5 and £4 costs on each of ten counts of supplying beer after hours, the club was fined £3O for permitting th© sale and ten defendants were mulcted in £2 each for consuming. club was also struck off the register, and the premists disqualified for a similar pqrpose for 12 months. Mr Seymour, detailing the observations kept on the premises by disguised police officers, said drinking went on all night up to 4.30 a.m., and sometimes 5.30 a.m. next day. The drinks were served by Brierley. “Continental banker and faro were played on the premises, Brierley taking the bank,” added Mr Seymour. “Frequent fights took place. One disguised detective was approached and an attempt was made to draw him into a conspiracy to make a ‘burst’ on a jeweller's shpp.” . My Seymour explained that this term meant robbery. “On another occasion a detective was approached by a i pipk-pocket, who said that he had the two finest fingers in the Midlands, tfie first and second fingers on one hand being exactly the same length.

“On other oppaSions in the early hpurs of the morning w° men went to 'the club and disgusting and vicious scenes took place.Brierley once suspected that police officers had entered and he approached one detective and asked him if he could supply him with a revolver. to ‘jump them off.’

“There is no doubt,” said Mr Seymour, “That this club was nothing more or less than a one-man show run by Brierley for profit.” Mr F. B. Pritchard, defending, said the club was started genuinely, but owing to its popularity it became impossible for the new committee to scrutinise every new member, and things were allowed to drift until there were hardly any election formalities at all. Brierley, he said, denied that he was a party to the alleged shopbreaking conspiracy. The women who entered the premises were wives calling on their husbands on their way home from dances.