HEAVY FINE FOR BOOKMAKING

Chronicle (Levin), 9 July 1946, Page 3

HEAVY FINE FOR BOOKMAKING

£200 PENALTY INFLICTED ON AGENT A fine of £200 was iuflictcd on Leonard Williani Oowling, aged 43 years, married, with three children, when he a])poared before Ifr. C. C. Marsack, S.M., in L.e Magistrate's Court at Palmerston North yesterday to face a charge of carrying on a business as a bookmaker. A plea of guilty was entered. Senior Detective O. Power, who prosceuted, said that when visited by tlie police on Saturday, Cowling frankly aumitted carrying on a business as a bookmaker. Defendant was using -an office in the city equipped with a telephone and the customury data. Cowling was a consistent ofl'endor, his last appearance before the Court being in Juue, 1945. On that oecasion he liaa given an assuranee that he would not eoutinue his aetivities, but on this oecasion he would give no assuranee because, he had said, he was waiting tor the outcomc of the Royal Commission on gaming. Defendant was only an agent- for a big bookmaker, but the amount of his business was quite con- ; siderable. Por Cowling, Mr. A. M. Ongley said he had had to give up his previous eniployment in a furnishing wardhouse because of asthma. He had been unable to obtain other employment, and three montlis ago he had recommcnced his agency for bookmaking. "Although this man has acted oniy as an agent, I rnust take into consideratiou the faet that he has been fineci three times previously, twice within the last 15 montlis, " commented the Magistrate, iiuposing the penalty as stated.