FAN TAN CHARGES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22643, 3 February 1937, Page 17

FAN TAN CHARGES

CHINESE ACQUITTED

QUESTION OF OCCUPANCY

Charges against two Chinese, Wing Wong, lorry driver, aged 31, and Albert Hong Duk, clerk, aged 37, who were arrested by detectives during a fan tan raid on premises at 49 Grey's Avenue on December 20, and who denied that being occupiers they permitted the premises to be used as a common gaming house when charged on January 26, were dismissed by Mr. C. 11. Orr "Walker, S.M., in the Police Court yesterday, on the ground that the prosecution had failed to prove affirmatively that the defendants were the occupiers. There was no evidence against the defendants other than that they played the unlawful game which constituted the premises as a gaming house, stated the magistrate's reserved decision. Itwas true that each defendant had an important and necessary job as banker and croupier respectively. The game could not be played without these offices being filled by persons who apparently were, as in this case, players as well. The evidence that defendants acted in such capacities was not sufficient to prove that they were the occupiers of the premises. The only other evidence on this poiiit was that defendants swore that they were not the occupiers or acting as occupiers, and that somebody else was. The magistrate failed to see that the evidence proved that the defendants on the day of their arrest were acting as, or as if they were, occupiers or persons having the care or management of the premises, for which they would be liable under section 13 of the Gaming Act. On the evidence, therefore, he dismissed both informations.