ILLEGAL SALES

Waikato Times, Volume 195, Issue 22393, 6 July 1944, Page 4

ILLEGAL SALES

SUPPLY OF LIQUOR FINES ON MAN AND WIFE An elderly resident of Hamilton East, Frank Alfred Haines, gasworks employee, was fined £SO and his wife, Bertha Caroline Haines, was fined £25 when they were charged in the Magistrate’s Court, Hamilton, today with selling liquor without a license at their house in McFarlane Street. Mr N. S. Johnson appeared for the defendants and entered pleas of guilty. Conducting the prosecution, Sen-ior-Sergeant A. G. McHugh said that as a result of complaints during several months Haines’ house had been kept under observation by the police. Numerous servicemen had been seen visiting the house and on one night 22 taxis had been checked pulling up outside. At 7 p.m. on June 23 two American provost corps merrbers visited the house. Mrs Haines admitted them and sold them a carton of beer for 275, a profit of 7s. At the time her husband was ill and in bed. To police inquiries Mrs Haines admitted selling liquor to servicemen over a period. Inquiries at a brewery and at hotels showed that from March 11 to June 17 Haines had purchased 324 quart bottles. There was also another source of supply. Senior-Sergeant McHugh said there was no need for him to emphasise the seriousness of sly-grogg-ing. The police looked on this case as a very bad one. Haines was in regular employment. The magistrate, Mr W. H. Freeman, remarked that the taxi drivers taking servicemen to the house must have known for what purpose their fares were going there. He queried whether they were not parties to the offence. The house occupied by Haines was one of those approved by the Patriotic Hut officials in a hospitality scheme for entertaining American servicemen, said Mr Johnson. Haines had liquor in the house and was prevailed on to give some to the Americans. “Anyone who indulges in selling liquor without a license knows perfectly well what to expect,” said the magistrate. “Almost every day one reads of persons in Auckland being imprisoned for such offences.”