£300 IN FINES

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 53, Issue 32459, 26 July 1944, Page 5

£300 IN FINES

GAMING ACT CHARGES TWO MEN FINED £lOO EACH SEQUEL TO RAID IN PAEROA Fines ranging from £lOO down to £lO and totalling in all £3OO, were imposed at Monday’s sitting of the Paeroa Magistrate’s Court by Mr W. H. Freeman, S.M., when six men appeared. . before him as a result of a raid'in Paeroa on Saturday, July 15. by a party of police to investigate complaints regarding bookmaking. Charles Neil O’Loughlin Snr.’hairdresser of Paeroa, was fined £WO with costs IDs. on a charge of running a common gaminghouse and Errol Gor-don-Nevin, hairdresser’s assistant was fined £lO, costs 10s, on a charge of assisting in the management of a common gaming house. Both men -were represented* by Mr R. S. Carden and- both pleaded guilty. Constable J. iL. Brown who prosecuted stated that 0 Loughlin was a tobacconist, hairdresser and newsagent in Paeroa. Recently evidence regarding the taking of bets was obtained against 'O’Loughlin and a warrant issued. On July I's at 11.30 a.m. the police visited his shop. There ■was considerable activity around the shop when the police arrived. It had been noticed that the shop was always very busy when races were on in other parts of New Zealand. When the police visited the shop O'Loughlin had betting on him' amounting to £44 for doubles and '£39- for straight bets. Nevin, said Constable Brown, was employed by O’Loughlin as a hairdresser and in the absence of his employer took bets for him. Neither had been before the court before. Mr Carden said both men had a very good character in the town. O Loughlin had been pestered by his clients to provide them with betting facilities when another hairdresser had been taking bets in the town and O’Loughlin to keep his clients had taken on an agency. O’Loughlin was not very interested in the business and on a Saturday afternoon when the betting was at its highest he usually shut his shop to attend the football. He was merely working on commission for another man. Nevin was only a young employee who had simply obliged by taking note of bets required when his employer was out. He got nothing from these transactions himself. ‘ Eleven Agents Francis Dennis -Sharp, railway porter and billiard saloon proprietor, of Paeroa, was fined £lOO, costs 10s, oil a charge of running a common gaminghouse and Walter Edward Keutenius, milk vendor, was fined £l5, costs 10s, on a charge of assisting in the management of a common gaminghouse. Sharp was represented by Mr R. S. Carden and Keutenius by Mr C. N. O'Neill. Both men pleaded guilty. Constable J. L. Brown said that Sharp had come to Paeroa as a railway porter some 13 months ago and had blossomed out as a bookmaker with 11 agents in the town. He had taken over a billiard saloon in the town and had been using it as a common gaminghouse. ' When the police had visited the saloon they found Keutenius employed there as a clerk recording bets. He had stated that he had been employed for three weeks. Keutenius had £1 4s 2d on him when searched. Sharp had been found in the Paeroa Hotel with £lB 9s Bid on him in cash and two cheques totalling £l2-odd. (Sharp’s records showed that since 'Saturday, July 8 iSharp had held £2lB-odd in bets for 139' people. He had taken £3O-odd up to 11.30 a.m. on the morning he was arrested, exclusive of double bets. Not In A Big Way

Mr Carden said that .Sharp was not in a big way. He had started to operate at the suggestion of an outside bookmaker. . He had to split up his commission with his sub-agents as he had to do his own work and had not the time to do the bookmaking himself.

iMr O’Neill said that Keutenius was not a regular agent of .Sharp’s. Two or three days' before the raid .Sharp had asked Keutenius to assist him and answer the telephone until 'Sharp was able to take over. Keutenius had been merely obliging a-friend when the police called. Keutenius was a milk vendor and two or three days a week when the boat was in assisted at the wharf so he had no time for bookmaking. The police were quite frank in admitting that they did not know that Keutenius was a bookmaker, contin- ’ ued Mt O’Neill and in fact he was not. Sharp had only recently purchased the billiard saloon and had not got it properly organised and Keutenius was merely helping him out. Clement Cyril O’Brien, billiard saloon marker of Paeroa, was fined £25,

costs IDs, on a charge of using Cooper’s Billiard Saloon as a common gaminghouse. O’Brien who was represented by Mr R. .'S. Carden, pleaded guilty. Caught With Double Chart

Constable’B'rown stated that O’Brien was employed as a marker at a billiard saloon operated by a man named Cooper. Evidence of his taking bets had been secured and a warrant issued. Betting material in his possession totallegd £l9 9s ! od, while an account from Sharp was for £3’B ss. This account was made out in the name of Cooper. O’Brien also had a double chart on which he was taking shilling doubles. O’Brien had been in the billiard saloon for two months. Mr Carden stated that O’Brien was merely an agent and did not receive all the commission. 'He was only in a very small way and had only been operating a couple of months. O’Brien had been in camp and discharged as 38. He had taken on the billiard saloon work as it was a job at which he could get a certain amount of rest which he could not have in other occupations. Leonard Mcßae, labourer of Paeroa, was fined £5O and costs 10 s on a charge of carrying on the business of a bookmaker. Mcßae who. was represented by Mr Carden, pleaded guilty. Only In A Small Way Constable Brown stated that McRae had been collecting bets' where he could obtain them and was not working from any premises. This was the reason for the different charge. Evidence of his activity was secured and a warrant issued. Actually Mcßae was arrested half-an-hour after the others and 'Paeroa was a small place and news soon travelled. Mcßae when arrested had only one betting slip on him. He was only in a small way. Mr Carden said that Mcßae was only a small doubles bettor, taking odd straight bets. There was a demand for his sort of thing which was being satisfied in all the towns throughout New Zealand. Case Adjourned Herbert Andrew Cummings (Mr C. N. O’Neill) who was charged with assisting in the management of a common gaminghouse pleaded not guilty. The police asked that the case be adjourned until next court and this was granted. “They are all described as agents and most of them are agents, the principals being in a bigger town, Tauranga or Hamilton. Hamilton, most likely, as we have quite a number of them there in a big way,” said the Magistrate in imposing the above fines. ,

“If the big men did not have agents they would have to come -out in the open,” continued the Magistrate, adding that being an agents was a stepping stone to being a big man. Billiard saloons, tobacconists and some fish shops are the usual places for bookmakers to establish agencies, said the magistrate. “There has been no prosecution in Paeroa for many years. I cannot remember any,” said the magistrate. Adding that they had been left alone for a long time the Magistrate then imposed the above fines. ' Mr Carden asked for time for McRae to pay his fine. Magistrate: He’ll get time if he doesn’t pay. He must pay in the statutory time or approach the clerk of the court who will refer the matter to me.