JUDGE REDUCES BOOKIE’S SENTENCE TO £250 FINE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22971, 14 June 1949, Page 5

JUDGE REDUCES BOOKIE’S SENTENCE TO £250 FINE

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, June 13. In reducing on appeal the sentence ot a bookmaker from six weeks' imprisonment to a fine of £250, Mr. Justice Finlay said in a written judgment issued today that it was “undesirable ’ for the magistrate imposing the original sentence to appear in the appeal proceedings. The bookmaker, Walter Preston, was represented by Mr. A. H. Johnstone, K.C., while Mr. G. Meredith appeared for the Crown and Mr. A. Moody for Mr. J. H. Luxford, S.M., who imposed the original sentence. , , , The judge said that Preston pleaded guilty to a bookmaking charge before Mr. Luxford on April 22. The appellant claimed later that the magistrate erred ir. allowing himself to be influenced by the recent referendum on gaming. He also claimed that the magistrate overestimated the significance of the appeilant’s previous convictions and had drawn the inference that £27,000, which it was erroneously stated the accused had in the bank, was made from unlawful betting. _ t ~ The magistrate had said that these factors had not influenced him in his decision, the judge said. The magistrate's language suggested that the referendum, in his view, emphasised the illegality of bookmaking. “That, of course, it did not, His Honour observed. .... The judge considered that there was an error in principle in imposing trie sentence. “It is but right to say, he added, "that counsel for the magistrate disavowed any desire to support this sentence, his purpose being to refute what the magistrate thought was a reflection on his impartiality.