BRUCE RINGING-IN CASE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18351, 23 August 1929, Page 5

BRUCE RINGING-IN CASE.

BATES AND HOLLAND GET YEAR’S IMPRISONMENT. I Special to the ‘‘Herald.’’) CHRISTCHURCH. August 22. Samuel Bates and Leslie Holland, j for ringing-in the pacer Bruce as ( “Imperial Thorpe,” were to-day sentenced to twelve months’ imprison- | ment, with hard labour. Mr Twyneham said that Bates was j thirty-six years of age. He was born ! at Orari, his people being highly respectable, and up to the present time he had an unblemished character. For eight or nine years he had been interested in trotting. He was able to j get two trotting horses, and to race 1 them. The purchase of Bruce was suggested to Bates by Holland, but Bates did not blame Holland. There i was no attempt to disguise the horse, except by changing its name. His Honour: “If they wanted to disguise it there was no more effective ! way than the plan they adopted. People don’t suppose that a horse ‘rung-in’ will appear in its natural colours.” Mr Twyneham said that although j they won about £4OO they had made j nothing out of the transaction in the | long run. His Honour said that he presumed that one object was to have informa- i tion to be used in putting money on I the totalisator. Mr Twyneham said that that was ; the object, but it was not attained. His Honour: “That was their mis- 1 fortune.” Mr Twyneham said that both men i were now absolutely penniless. Mr Thomas said that Holland was j twenty-eight years of age, and was married. It was possible that the men j when started did not realise the | seriousness of what they were doing. | His Honour: “Do you suggest that . men could go in for schemes of this kind without a continual perception of the moral wrong they were doing? Do you suggest that they did not realise the fraud?” Mr Thomas said that it was common knowledge that as far as some of the smaller men in racing were concerned things were not as straight as in i other walks of life. Mr Donnelly, Crown Prosecutor, said that the offence had been persisted in ' for about a year. The prisoners had 1 the’ audacity to bring the horse to ! Christchurch, and to race it under the j eyes of the authorities here. As to Mr ; Thomas’s .suggestion that smaller men ! in the racing business had their moral 1 perception so seriously affected that | they would not regard that kind of j * I thing as a fraud, it was childish and J ridiculous. j Mr Thomas: “I said ‘some of the j smaller men.’ ” l Mr Donnelly: “There is no question i that these men went into the business 'to make money. It was not their ■ fault that they failed. His Honour said that there had been a consistent career of fraud for upI wards of a year. He could not accept ! what had been said as a modification ! of the facts. During the whole time the men had worked with the same dishonest minds to commit a fraud in which there was a possibility of considerable profit to themselves. Their hopes were disappointed, but that did not affect the nature and quality of j their act. People who frequented , racecourses a"d took risks there must be protected even against their own foolishness, rnd certainly against such . frauds as that one. There must be I• a substantial sentence of twelve i I months' hard labour each.