LIQUOR SMUGGLING ON COAST OF DORSET

Chronicle (Levin), 12 May 1947, Page 5

LIQUOR SMUGGLING ON COAST OF DORSET

LOXDOX, May 5. A story of eighteenth centurv sniug gling brought uj) to date was told in a Dorset Poliee Court today when six rnen appeared to ansvver charges ot liquor smuggling. Three of theni are retired nuval offieers. Oue of tlie men, a fornier submarine commander, was J'meu £9500 and sentenced to six months' mprisonment, and another, a fornier navai officer, was fined £8500 and sentenced to iive months' imprisoiiinent. The men were eaught in a poliee arabush at a Jonely spot above Arne Hvt> ton Beach, Dorsetshire, on the night ot April 13. The court was stacked with 103 cases containing more than a thousand bottles of Fronch liqueurs, brandy, and cham pagne. The prosecutor told the Court: "We have all lieard of smuggling in tne eighteenth century. The facts of tlns case ai-e brought up to date to flt iu with the latest developments of the scieutilic age. Wines and spirits boughi in France for 15s have been sold on the London black market for £5 10s. These men, on oue 'ruri,' got supplies from a Frencb merchnnt 011 the pretext that they were intended for H.M.js. Vanguard. On another 'run' the pretext was that the liquor was for H.M.S. Oolossus. The liquor was loaded uiuier Customs supervision in France aboard a landing craft from which the White Ensign was flown. "Poliee trapped the men after a 'run' on a nioonless April night. The poliee made m.-roadblock with motorcars on a road leading from Arne Hvlton Beach, hid in bushes, and then rushed out and surrounded the liquorrunners' lorry. "