ILLICIT STILLS RAIDED

Southland Times, Issue 25342, 22 July 1935, Page 11

ILLICIT STILLS RAIDED

SPIRIT USED TO DRIVE MOWER. Heavy fines were imposed in illicit still prosecutions at Doncaster and Sheffield recently. Stated to be liable to penalties of £l2OO, Alex Langhorne, a young coal worker, was at Doncaster, fined £129, or six months’ imprisonment, for being in possession of illicit spirits and a still, and for making a wash.

Mr D. J. Wilson, for the Customs and Excise, said that Langhorne offered three bottles of illicit whisky to a Wakefield publican for £l. The stuff—which cost only about Is a bottle to make—was much more powerful than ordinary whisky. Allegations that a lonely house in the village of Oughtybridge had been used for the manufacture of illicit liquor were made in the Sheffield case. Charges of being concerned in the removal of the spirits were brought against Charles Edgar William Hopkins, his wife, and Joseph Barton, a labourer. Barton’s wife, Mary Barton, and Ellen Smithies, were charged with depositing the spirits. Hopkins was fined £5O and his wife 10s, Barton £5 and his wife 10s and Mrs Smithies £2. Hopkins admitted that he had distilled the liquor, but said it was “poor stuff.” He had got the idea from an American journal.

“I suggest that the spirit was made for sale throughout the poor districts of Sheffield,” said Mr C. A. Ryves, prosecuting for the Customs and Excise.

“The majority of the population of a pool- area probably like whisky, but cannot afford it, and there is a considerable market for cheap whisky.” Hopkins, in evidence, said that there was not the slightest sinister motive in his living at Oughtybridge Priory, which he took to let rooms and as boarding kennels for dogs. He had driven a lawn mower with the spirit.