AN APPEAL UPHELD

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18586, 21 December 1934, Page 13

AN APPEAL UPHELD

HE ' ! LIQUOR AFTER HOURS PURCHASERS’ LIABLE (Per Press Association.) PALMERSTON N., this day. Reserved judgment has been given by Mr. Justice Blair in the case in which Police .Sergeant Angland appealed against the decision of: the magistrate, Mf. J. L. Stout. The magistrate had . dismissed charges against three Feilding residents of aiding David Prideaux Barrett, licensee of the Manchester Hotel, Feilding, in the commission of an offence, it being alleged that the licensee sold liquor on the premises at a time when they were required to he closed. in the course of his judgment, in which appeal is allowed, the judge said the respondents had admitted to tlie police having been on. the licciisfid premises and procuring liquor. They wore not, however, “found” on the premises, and not charged with a breach of section 194 of the Licensing Act. The appellant, Sergeant Angland, claimed that, the purchaser of liquor could be convicted of aiding a man who unlawfully sold it to him, this constituting a breach of section 190 of the Act. In this case, however, the respondents wero charged under section 54 of the Justices of the Peace Act. The judge held that there could not be an unlawful sale without a buyer to make 'the sale complete. The section made an aider liable to the same punishment- as the principal. The judge remitted the case to the magistrate with a-direction to convict, unless, after hearing the respondents, ho came /to the conclusion that the facts, as varied or explained, did not constitute an aiding of sale. The appellant was allowed £5 5s costs, each respondent to pay onethird.