BOOKMAKER FINED.

Otago Witness, Issue 3864, 3 April 1928, Page 15

BOOKMAKER FINED.

SECOND VENTURE FRUSTRATED. NOMINAL PENALTY INFLICTED. “ This is another ease of a small bookmaker being prosecuted,” said Mr C. J. L. White on behalf of Ernest Percy Dell, who pleaded guilty to a charge of bookmaking at the City Police Court on Wednesday. Chief Detective Cameron said that on March 23, Detectives Lean and Russell found the accused in the bar of the Criterion Hotel, and took from him a betting book and a double chart for the Oamaru races. By these it did not appear as if the accused were betting on a large scale. He had been previously fined £lOO for keeping a common gaminghouse in Oamaru, and at the same time convicted and discharged on a charge of bookmaking. After leaving Oamaru he had come to Dunedin, but there was nothing to indicate that he had done any bookmaking until very recently. Mr White said' the accused was a working barber, who earned about £5 per week. He had a wife and four young children, and if a heavy fine were inflicted it would be hard on them. Counsel suggested that in the present case'the offence might be held over Dell’s head, and that perhaps he would be convicted and ordered to come up for seutcnce when called on. The presiding Magistrate, Mr J. R. Bartholomew, pointed out that they, did not know how far the accused would have gone had this attempt not been nipped in the bud. “ If," he said,' “ I adopted counsel’s suggestion, “I should be creating the pernicious precedent cf giving a man a trial run in bookmaking. I shall impose a fine of £25." Mr White asked for time to pay, and his Worship agreed that if £lO were paid within two weeks a further extension of time for payment of the balance might be applied for.