TEARS IN THE DOCK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20650, 23 August 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

TEARS IN THE DOCK.

LONDON NIGHT CLUB CASE.

MRS. MERRICK SENTENCED.

PRISON AND £142 IN FINES. Mrs. Kate Evelyn Merrick pleaded guilty at the Bow Street Police Court, London, on July 3, to summonses for drink offences at tho Richmond Club, 43, Gerrard Street, Soho. Defendant was sentenced by Sir Charles Biron to six months' imprisonment for soiling without a licence, and further ordered to pay fines totalling £9O, with £52 10s costs for selling after hours. An alternative sentence of three months was made to run concurrently with tho six months. Tho club was ordered to be struck off tho register, and tho premises disqualified from being used as a club for 12 months. Sir Charles Biron, passing sentence, said: " One really cannot be asked to exercise leniency in a case that is not merely flagrant, but a deliberate breach of tho law." For a few seconds after the sentence had beon spoken, Mrs. Merrick sat huddled in tho dock and weeping. Then she slowly rose, and, with a woman warder alongside, walked across tho court to the door leading to the cells. Dorotio Delviso, an Italian, and Paul Ghini, waiters employed at the club, were fined £lO and £5 respectively for selling drinks after hours. Two women and six men, accused of unlawfully consuming drinks at the club at 2.15 a.m., on June 26, were each fined 40s. What the Police Saw. Mr. E. F. Barker, who officiated for tho Commissioner of Polica, said that Mrs. Merrick was tho rated occupier of 43, Gerrard Street. On June 22, 1928, a club conducted in the basement and ground floor, then known as tho Cecil Club, was disqualified for five years, and shortly afterwards the present so-called Richmond Club was started on the second floor of tho same premises. The secretary was Aubrey Leonard Wise, but the prosecution suggested that he was merely a figure-head of Mrs. Merrick's. Police observation was kept on the premises on Juno 11 and 14. On the first date two- officers in plain clothes saw Mrs. Merrick in a small office on the ground floor. She said to ono of them, indicating tho other, "Is he all right, as I am serving downstairs to-night?"

This, said Mr Barker, obviously meant that she was serving in tho Cecil Club, or tho old Forty-three Club, when »he was not entitled to servo drinks in any event. Dancing was going on to the music of a band, and champagne in glasses was being served. High Pries for Champagne. . For champagne the charge was 35s and 40s a bottle, which was an iniquitous price, remarked Barker. Other drinks were sold at equally exaggerated prices. Drinking was still going on at 1.35 a.m., wben tho officers left. On June 14. the same officers went upstairs to the Richmond Club and saw drinking going on until long after midnight. , A warrant was then otbained, and was executed by Superintendent Concannon and a large number of other officers at 2.15 a.m. on Juno 26. In the Richmond Club on the second floor drinks were being freely served at tho time of the officers' visit. Mr. Barker mentioned that on February 27, 1922, Mrs. Merrick was fined £250 and costs for selling drinks, and £IOO for permitting music and dancing without a licence. On Juno 27, 1928, she was given three separate sentences of six months, to run concurrently, for offences at her club. Her last conviction was a sentence of 18 months' imprisonment for conspiracy, passed at tho Central Criminal Court. Mr. L. D. Woolfe, defending counsel, said that after her last sentence of imprisonment, Mrs. Merrick made a resolution that nothing of tho kind should occur again, nnd sho proceeded to carry out that resolution for some months.

Yielding to Temptation. Butt sho was from timo to time pressed to supply intoxicants, and, though sho refused for a while, she eventually, in a moment of weakness, gavo way, nnd fej.l back to breaking tho law again. In fact, she had been so persistent in refusing to supply intoxicants that it had been tho practice of many of tho members to cany their own flasks in order that they might havo refreshments during tho dances. It was suggested by Mrs. Woolfe that if Mrs. Merrick found substantial sureties and was bound over herself not to enter a night club for a period of, say, two years, that would, with addition of a monetary punishment, meet tho case, rather than a term of imprisonment " If one considers it in tho light of common-sense, why are theso offences committed ?" asked Mr. Woolfe. "Only because persons givo way to the temptation "of making a profit on tho sale of liquor."