CITY BOOKMAKER GAOLED FOR MONTH WITH HARD LABOUR

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

CITY BOOKMAKER GAOLED FOR MONTH WITH HARD LABOUR

(P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, June_l4. For carrying on the business of a bookmaker John Francis Madden was sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour for one month by Mr. Rex C. Abernethy, S.M., yesterday. “I am not concerned with anything but the strict law of the country " said the magistrate. What a commission said, or what it proposed, did not concern him at this stage. Expressions of the higher courts on what was ‘ a nt thing to do with a man who persists in bookmaking,” were his only consideration, apart from the law itself, in the fixing of the penalty. Having regard to the accused’s previous convictions he would impose a term of imprisonment. , Detective-Sergeant R. S. Smith said that Madden was 43 and was a bookmaker in a substantial way. On June 11 detectives found that up to 12.30 p.m. bets for £550 had been taken and another £SO was taken in the next half-hour. Madden had been fined £l5O for bookmaking last August. Counsel for Madden said he had re-opened his business only recently because of “pressure” from former customers. In some districts it appeared that the result of the gaming poll influenced the weight of punishment imposed on bookmakers. All the poll decided was that off-course betting should be fully catered for and that the racing authorities were a suitable organisation to manage, the scheme.