BOOKMAKER FINED.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19531, 14 July 1925, Page 8

BOOKMAKER FINED.

HEAVY PENALTY INFLICTED. (Per United Press Association.) AUCKLAND, July 13. Carl Ernest Ekman was to-day, at the Police Court, fined ±I3OO, with the alternative of serving six months' imprisonment in Mount Eden, having pleaded guilty to a charge of having earned on the business of a bookmaker.

Senior Detective Ward stated that, with Chief Detective Cummings, • he arrested accused on Saturday. For some months past Ekman had been frequenting the Thames Hotel, whore he indulged in the practice of his “ profession.” Chief Detective Cummings then had something to toll the magistrate (Mr J. W. Poynton) about accused. Ekman, ho said, had quite a flourishing business, for his settling sheet for one day’s transactions showed a total of £BS. He had £27 on him when arrested, as well as betting clips. Accused owned a hairdresser’s and tobacconist’s shop in Mount Eden, and kept a man to look after the shop while he himself did betting in tho open bar of the Thames Hotel. When arrested accused said he could get a bond of £SOO, and was bailed in the sum of £2OO. Ekman was a man of moans. As soon as he was bailed after his arrest, Ekman went back to tho hotel and resumed betting. Mr Waddington, who appeared for Ekman, said his client was not a man of means. Ekman was suffering from consumption, and was not allowed to work in his hairdresser’s shop. As a result, this business was falling away fast, and accused had boon persuaded to adopt other means of making a living. Mr Poynton: I don’t think it is the host method of preparing for tho next world. Chief Detective Cummings: The public bar of a hotel is not tho best place for him if he is as bad as counsel makes out._

Mr Poynton: I think it is a very discreditable thing that betting and gambling is permitted in hotels. Accused will bo fined £SOO.

; Mr Waddington asked for time to pay, but the magistrate replied that he would not allow time to a man who went straight back to a hotel after his arrest and commenced again. However, at a later stage, Dir Poynton agreed to allow accused throe days in which to pay.