TOTALISATOR FRAUDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22712, 26 October 1935, Page 26

TOTALISATOR FRAUDS

PERPETRATED BY WOMAN TICKETS ISSUED TO HERSELF A remarkable case was heard in London recently when Mrs Annie Bowden, aged 39, was charged with receiving £l7 Ills with intent to defraud, under two forged betting tickets, knowing them to have been forged, at Northolt Park racecourse, on June 10. She was fined £SO, with £5 5s costs, with the alternative of three months’ imprisonment. Mr Claude Hornby, prosecuting for Northolt Park, Ltd., said the proceedings were taken with the approval of the Betting Control Board. Bowden was employed as a clerk on two half-days a week to look after the “ tote double.” There was a totalisatcr on the course, and it was the piactiee for the “ tote double ” to operate on the third and fifth races. There were two code words for these two races which were changed daily. If the first horse won the holder of a ticket exchanged it for another in the fifth race, and that was stamped with another code word. If that horse won the holder was entitled to a dividend. In May of this year, according to a statement which she had made, Bowden conceived the idea that if there were two rubber stamps bearing the code word it would be possible for her to help herself after the winner of the race was known. She could not have done that in the ordinary way because the course was so carefully supervised that the minute a race was “ off ” the stamps bearing the code word were immediately collected before the clerk had any idea which the winner could be. Bowden’s window was in a position from which she could see the winning post or see the numbers go up. She then used her own stamp, the official one having been collected, and gave herself an effective ticket. On June 10 the code word for the third race was “ Dublin,” and Bowden gave herself a ticket for that. The code word for the fifth race was " Cavson.” The winner was No. 2, and Bowden sold five tickets, the last two of which she issued to herself. But in her hurry she made her rubber stamp function to sign the word “ Carson ” instead of “ Cavson.” An official saw her nibbing out some numbers, and inquiries were made. On that day Bowden obtained £l7 10s —two tickets of £8 18s each. According to her statement, she obtained another £lB a month earlier. She had one more effort and that time the dividend was so large that she got frightened and got a friend to write in for the money on the pretext that it was Ids. Inquiries were made and the whole matter came to light. Bowden had made a full confession. Mr Hornby said that her husband was in a good financial position and it hardly seemed necessary for her to stooi) to a betting fraud on the public which, fortunately, owing to the vigilance of the officials, got no further. Detective Inspector Woodcraft, of Scotland Yard, said Bowden’s husband earned £250 a year. Sbe had always been well respected. Her only explanation was that the fraud was easy the first rime. The chairman (Mr A. .1. Chard) : What about the money? Inspector Woodcraft: I do not think she squandered it, but has kept some of it. Bowden told the magistrates: “ I do not know what made me do it. Everything was so easy for me to obtain the money and I just gave way.” Mr Hornby said that employees were not allowed to bet. The chairman : There must be another party implicated. Mr Hornby: It is difficult to say. One thing is quite clear. With regard to the person she got to write in for the money in her unsuccessful attempt, wc are quite satisfied that he is perfectly innocent. He had no idea that he was assisting a fraud. The chairman; Bowden sells the tickets and also pays out? “ Yes,” said Mr Hornby.