CHARGE DISMISSED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20493, 1 March 1941, Page 7

CHARGE DISMISSED

ALLEGED SLY-GROGGING CONSTABLE’S UNTRUTHS (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. “There is a distinct difference between going to premises suspected of being a sly-grog shop to buy liquor from an occupier who is willing to sell and persuading a person—using the vernacular —by pitching a tale to supply liquor after it has been stated that there is no liquor for sale,” commented the magistrate, Mr. J. H. Luxford, after hearing a sly-grog case in which a constable admitted that he had told untruths in order to obtain evidence. The case was dismissed. The constable admitted that when obtaining the liquor he represented himself to be a sailor off a ship. The premises concerned were a confectionery shop in a city street and the defendants a woman proprietor and a lodger. Mr. Luxford remarked that he was prepared to accept the woman’s statement that she had never bought or sold liquor in her life. In evidence, the woman had stated that she, gave the constable liquor, believing that he was a sailor, on the understanding that he would return the same amount later.