LICENSEE FINED £150.

Grey River Argus, 28 August 1928, Page 5

LICENSEE FINED £150.

DRAUGHT BEER SOLD. In Labelled Bottles. (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, August 27. For having in his possession bottles bearing three well-known labels, and, without removing the lab Is, using the bottles for rebottling liquor for sale, Andrew Beggs, late licensee of ihcMa<onic Hotel, Devonport, was fined £lso—£so on each charge— at the Polio ■ Court. Mr Hubble, who appeared for the Health Department, described Beggs offence as serious, as it was deliberate, and following . two previous eon/lotions of a similar nature. On July 2, two H alth Department Inspectors bought two bottles of beer at the hotel. While drinking the beer in the bar; they noticed that the bottles wore sealed with plain tops, inst ad of being labelled with the bland that was on the’ bottle. Their suspicions were aroused an fl .they obtained samples of three bottles, each of three brands of beer, a 1! the nine bottles being scaled with plain tops. An analysis showed that in ach case the beer in all the battles was snbstantially the same. An analyst of the brands of beer they purported to be showed considerable differences.

“It is a profitable undertaking,” conchide 1 Mr Hubble, “as draught beer is only half the price of the bottled variety.”

For Beggs. Mr MacVeagh said that he had a fre * house, with permission to rebottle from draught, and that possibly, in the course of this process, .the assistants had omitted to remove the labels from the bottles brought, in the press of business. “I am of opinion that Beggs must have known something of what was aoing on,” said Mr Levien, S.M., ?s he imposed the fine of £l5O.