LICENSEE CHARGED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22202, 31 August 1935, Page 16

LICENSEE CHARGED

ILLEGAL SALE OF LIQUOR COMMENT ON EVIDENCE Comment on the conflict of evidence given by a witness for the prosecution and testimony by defence witnesses was made by Mr. Wvvern Wilson, S.M., in tlio Police Court yesterday, when charges of selling liquor and opening licensed premises during hours when the premises were required to be closed, were preferred against Alexander Burr, licensee of the Hnapai Hotel. SubInspector Fox conducted the case for the police, .Mr. Haigh representing defendant. Called bv the police, a woman said a Mr. Sutherland, accompanied by another man, called for her in a motorcar on the afternoon of Sunday, May 12. Witness and another woman accompanied the men, with the intention of driving to Muriwai. A stop was made at the Huapai Hotel, where liquor was consumed. Further liquor was obtained on the return journey from Muriwai. She denied that the party reached the hotel lirst about five o'clock. The licensee said ho had' known the man Sutherland for six years through a mutual interest in motor-racing. He said Sutherland called about five o'clock and asked when dinner would be served. He invited Sutherland and his friends to have drinks as his guests, and the party left shortly afterward. The licensee's evidence was corroborated by Donald Sutherland, while the other woman member of the party said the hotel was not entered on the return journey to Auckland. The magistrate said he considered the evidence for the prosecution more reliable, and fined defendant £3 on one charge and i'l on the other. A\hen counsel ask-d for heavier penalties to secure right of appeal, the magistrate imposed lines of £5 on each charge.

LIQUOR AFTER HOURS " NOT A SERIOUS CASE " " The circumstances of this case are not serious, and it was not a question of a bar being found full of men who had no right on tho premises," said Mr. \Y yvern Wilson, S.M., in the Police Court yesterday, when Bruce Tudor, a former licensee of the Grossvenor Hotel, was charged with opening tho premises for the sale of liquor after hours and with selling liquor after hours. The offences were alleged to have been committed on June 24. Appearing for defendant, Mr. Heady said his client had hold a licence for 15 years in Auckland, and had not been charged previously with an offence against tho licensing laws. On the night the police had visited tho hotel, they had found three men on the premises, two of them being employees of tho establishment, and the other man a former employee, who was in the habit of visiting tho licensee. Defendant was fined £2 on each charge.