LOST TICKETS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23401, 18 July 1939, Page 8

LOST TICKETS

WINNER AT RACES FINDER NOT GUILTY VERDICT OP JURiY FEILDING MEETING ECHO [BY TELEGRAPH—OWN CORRESPONDENT] PALMERSTON NORTH, Monday A verdict of not guilty was returned by the jury in the Supreme Court at Palmerston North to-day, before Mr.< ; Justice Blair, when Sydney Herbert Hume, buttermaker, was charged with the attempted tlieft of two totalisator tickets, of a value of £65 ss, the property of Archibald McCorkindale, of Wairoa. The Crown's case was that on the last day of the Feilding races McCorkindale purchased two £5 tickets on Lucullus Boy, which won and paid £6 10s 6d. Discovering that he had lost his tickets, McCorkindale reported the matter to the racing club and then returned to his home in Wairoa. Call at Club Offices The next day, it was stated; accused went to the office of the racing club with two tickets on Lucullus Boy and endeavoured to collect the dividend. Asked why he had not presented the tickets on the previous day, accused replied that he had to meet the Auckland express. The secretary' took his name and address, stating that he would communicate with him. When tho police made inquiries, accused stated that his son had found the tickets and that accused, after cashing them, intended to look for the owner. Submissions to Jury Counsel for the defence, in his address to tho jury, contended that tho average man who found a winning ticket on a racecourse would endeavour to cash it. He asked what chance accused had of knowing that he could find the owner. His Honor, in summing up, asked tho jury to consider what they would do if ,they came into possession of tickets which had been found. Would they take the attitude that finding was keeping, or would they make ininquiries from the racing club? The jury then returned its verdict of not guilty.