DOUBLES CHART NOTEBOOK

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27995, 15 June 1956, Page 12

DOUBLES CHART NOTEBOOK

POSSESSION HELD AN OFFENCE FINE OF £3 IMPOSED “Allan Baines, the defendant, is charged with having in his possession a document ‘to wit a notebook of a description designed to be used in connexion with bookmaking on the laying of odds,’ ” said Mr Raymond Ferner, S.M., giving a reserved decision in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. “One page of the notebook is filled in and ruled up as a doubles chart. The defendant admitted that he knew what the book was. He had not written in it, but was preparing to do so when accosted by the sergeant of police,” said the Magistrate. "In a recent Magistrate’s Court decision Mr Drummond, S.M., held that the Gaming Act, 1908, section 63A; was wide enough to include ‘a person in possession of betting documents even although he has not been shown to have any other connexion with the business’ if that person held it “intentionally with the knowledge that it is a document designed to be used in connexion with bookmaking.’ I agree with this view,” continued the Magistrate. “In its relation to the present charge, the section as far as it relates to the facts we are considering, reads: ‘Every person commits an offence . . . who . . . has in his possession . . . any documents . . . designed to be used in connexion with bookmaking’ “Clearly the defendant nad such a document—the notebook with its doubles chart. He admitted he knew what it was for and that he intended to use it, said the Magistrate. Mr B. McClelland appeared for the defendant.

Baines was convicted and fined £3.