GRAND NATIONAL, 1939

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23686, 19 December 1938, Page 11

GRAND NATIONAL, 1939

300,000 SWEEPSTAKE TICKETS "CAPTURE" AT WHARFSIDE (From Our Ow»j Corresponpent) (By Aii Mail), LONDON, Nov. 17. Over 300,000 hospital sweepstake tickets, addressed to many parts of the world, and amounting in value to over £165,370, were produced at Bristol Police Court *on November 14, when three Bristol men were charged with being in possession of the tickets. They were Paul William Christine Christensen, of Redland; Alfred Leach, of Redcliffe Hill; and Frederick Willijam Tozer, of Bedminster. Leach and Tozer, who were also jointly charged with unlawfully bringing the tickets into Great Britain for distribution, pleaded guilty on that charge. Tozer pleaded not guilty to the charge of being in possession of the tickets, and Christensen and Leach pleaded guilty. Tozer was found guilty of possessing tickets and bound over for six months.

Christensen and Leach were fined £2O each for being in possession of the tickets. The charge of bringing them into the country was not proceeded with. Mr A. C. Caffin, prosecuting, said the tickets related to the Grand National Steeplechase in 1939, and it was alleged that they had been brought into England on the s.s. Cato on October 30 at Wapoing Wharf, Bristol. The boat traded regularly between Dublin and Bristol.

" On Sunday. October 30, at 9.45 n.m. a police officer saw a car near the Cato at Wapping Wharf," Mr Caffin continued. LETTERS FOR ABROAD

The police officer saw Tozer on the gangway, and he was handling a large paper parcel to Leach who was on the quay. When the officer was seen Leach handed the parcel back. Christensen was. in the car, and in the back of it were nine similar parcels. When asked by the police officer what the parcels contained, he replied: "They are letters to be posted abroad." He said that they were receipts in connection with the Irish Hospital SweeDstake. The pracels were found to contain six cardboard boxes, each of which contained large numbers of letters already stamped and addressed to persons abroad. The letters contained Irish sweepstake tickets, the value of which amounted to £165,378. Christensen said that he had received information from Dublin that the car.*o on the Cato would contain letters from Ireland to nost abroad. •'I undertook to nost these lptters and there my contract ended," he said.

Leach said that he knew the car would be there, and helped to place thp narcels in it. Tozer said that he was on watch that nipht. but against regulations went ashore to have a drink. He returned and saw Leach, who handed him a parcel to place in "the car. "I did not know what it contained." he said. M> F. C. Counsel, who apneared for the defendants, contended that plthough the men had acted against the law they were not defrauding anyone, and half the country would have given anything to have one of these tickets "even if the other half were dead against it."