RACECOURSE PESTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIX, Issue 21993, 19 June 1941, Page 8

RACECOURSE PESTS

“GENTLEMEN” PICKPOCKETS SYDNEY, June 15. Gentlemen pickpockets, young, smartly dressed, and well educated, are worrying the police on Sydney and provincial racecourses. They are men with whom the police have had no previous contact, and they seem to have driven many of the old racecourse "regulars” from their haunts. Detectives, who attend all race meetings, have made half a dozen arrests in the last few weeks, and in each case the alleged offender has had no previous conviction. The police can give no explanation for the actions of these young men, whose appearance and address should get them honest Jobs Immediately. This new gang of pickpockets has increased the police task of protecting the public on racecourses. Racecourses in and around Sydney have been cleaned up in the last few years, but police officials still contend that they could take even sterner action if they were given Increased powers. Day after day they see pickpockets, gangsters, gunmen, and others mingling with the crowd on racecourses, but unless these men actually are caught in an illegal act, or unless they are found consorting with each other, the police can take no action. The old criminals know the police limitations, and they work singly. Often they are warned, but they are not afraid of verbal punishment. Gangs of card-sharpers, who used to frequent the race trains, however, have been broken up. Even on the short train trips, detectives repeatedly patrol each carriage. The police also have scattered the two-up players, who formerly congregated outside Sydney racecourses, and the crowds of undesirables, who used to await the arrival of provincial race trains, have been driven from the central railway station.