FINED £300.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 14 July 1925, Page 5

FINED £3OO.

BOOKMAKER, pleads guilty. BETS MADE IN HOTEL BAR. (By Telegraph—Press Association ) AUCKLAND, Monday. Carl Ernest Ekman, aged 3S, was today in the Police -Court fined £3OO, with the alternative of serving six months’ imprisonment in Mount Eden Gaol, he having pleaded guilty to a charge of having carried on the business of a bookmaker. Senior-Deteetive Ward stated that, with ChieLDetective -Cummings, he arrested the accused on Saturday. For months past Ekman had been frequenting the Thames Hotel, where he indulged in the practice of his “profession.” Chief-Detective Cummings then had something to tell Mr J. W. Poynton, S.M., about Ekman. He said he had quite a flourishing business*, for his settling sheet for one day ’s transaction showed a total of £BS, and he had £27 on him when arrested, as well as betting slips. The accused owned a hairdresser’s and tobacconist’s shop in Mount Eden, and kept a man to look after his shop, while he himself did betting in the open bar of the Thames Hotel.. When arrested the accused said lie could get a bond of £SOO, and was bailed in a sum of £2OO. Ekman was a man of means. As soon as he "was bailed after his arrest, Ekman went back to the Thames Hotel and resumed betting. Mr Waddingham, who appeared tor Ekman, said his client was not a man of means. Ekman was suffering from consumption, and was not allowed to work in his hairdresser’s shop. As a result his business was falling away fast, and the accused had been persuaded to adopt other means of making a living. . . Mr Poynton: I don’t think it is the best means of preparing for the next world. Chief-Detective Cummings: The public bar of an hotel is not the best place for him if he is as bad as counsel makes out. Air Povnton: T think it is a iciv discreditable thing that betting and gambling is permitted in hotels. The accused will be fined £3OO. Ah- Waddingham asked for time to pav, but the magistrate replied that he would not allow time to a man who went straight back to the hotel after his arrest and commenced again. However, at a later stage, Mr Poynton agreed to allow the accused three days in which to pay.