HEAVY FINE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 62, Issue 4430, 26 May 1941, Page 5

HEAVY FINE

BOOK-MAKING. A HAMILTON CASE. “I see defendant was fined £5O, and later £lOO. That is doubling up. I will again double it, fining him £2OO He is perhaps lucky the penalty is not a term of imprisonment,” said Mr W. H. Freeman, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court, Hamilton on Saturday when convicting Richard William Healey of carrying on the business of a bookmaker at Hamilton on May 17. Mr N. S. Johnson entered a plea of guilty for Healey. Another charge, of using premises as a common gaming house, was not proceeded with. Detective-Sergeant J. Thompson said Detectives Hayes and Moore executed a search warrant on premises in Victoria Street, Hamilton, and found a considerable quantity of betting material and two telephones installed. It was clear the premises were used for bookmaking A total of 142 “doubles” had been taken for two recent race meetings A book showed that money owing to Healey amounted to hundreds of pounds. PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS. Details were given of convictions for a similar offence in February, 1940, and of keeping a common ‘ gaming house in December, 1940. Counsel said the circumstances were rather unusual in that complaint'rtad been made to the police about a dispute between two visitors to the premises. Healey had nothing to do with it, and was a man of good reputation. The magistrate imposed a fine of £2OO, adding that it seemed there was a tremendous amount of bookmak ing going on in the Dominion, and bookmakers appeared to be making a good living.