GAMBLING DEN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21607, 9 January 1945, Page 4

GAMBLING DEN

TWO MEN GAOLED 76 -OPTIMISTS” FINED (P.A.) ' AUCKLAND, Jan. 8. The Police Court was packed this morning when 78 men arrested in a raid by detectives on Friday night on a two-up school in Durham street were charged. Larry Lasher, aged 49, waterside worker, pleaded guilty to using the premises as a common gaming house. David Henry Simon, aged 59, a painter, pleaded not guilty to a charge of assisting Lasher. In sentencing Lasher to two months’ imprisonment, the magistrate. Mr. J. Morling, said the fact that 78 people were found on the premises showed that the unlawful game had to be stopped. Lasher had been warned by the police about running a gaming house in other premises in the city, and a term of imprisonment had to be imposed. The magistrate said lie was unable to accept legal points submitted on behalf of Simon, that he was not employed by Lasher. He convicted him and after the police had stated that Simon had a formidable list of convictions for gaming offences, he sentenced him to two months’ imprisonment. The remaining 7G men, whom the police referred to as “the optimists,” were each fined 83 for having been found on the premises. The magistrate congratulated the police officers ort their good work_ in unearthing this gambling den, adding that it was a pity to find a number of respectable men associating with convicted criminals.