ARISTOCRATIC BELGRAVIA

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 31, 6 February 1913, Page 10

ARISTOCRATIC BELGRAVIA

SENSATIONAL BACCARAT RAID. £10,000 COUNTERS. (From Our OAvn Correspondent.) LONDON, 20th December. On Tuesday morning Westminster Police Court Avas temporarily transformed into a fashionable sporting club. From 10 o'clock in the morning smart motor-cars and taxi-cabs passed doAvn P»ochester Row to the Police Court, bringing tho Avell'dressed leisurely young men about town and the three ladies, who were all arrested the previous evening during a police raid on a Wiltonciescent baccarat house. The principals were : Roy M'Kay, aged 24, described as an engineer, of s. Wilton-crescent, Bel-grave-square; William Marshall Grosse, aged 32, Avhose business Avas given as "merchant," of the same address. They Avei'6 charged with conducting the home for the purpose of illegal gaming. Behind them were three men servants of tho residence — Henry Jbhnsou, aged 54, tho hall porter ; George Platt, aged 22, and George Martin, fooiman — who AVere charged Avith assisting to conduct a gaming establishment. Among those .charged, Avith frequenting the house for .the purpose of gaining Avere :— Leo Ealli, 28,, of Park-street, Park-lane, gentleman ; ' Melville Ward, 22, of CleA-eland-roAV. St. James's, no occupation ; George F. Sykes, of the Badminton Club, Piccadilly, no occupation; Henry Stanton, 34, of the Badminton Club, no occupation; Robert Borthwick, 41. Carlton House, Regentstreet, engineer; Rene l£ann, 52. cf Lancaster Gate, no occupation, described as a French subject i George Leonard Daviee, 59, of Tisbury-road, Hove, no occupation; Morris H. Knight, 26, of Wroth, Marlow, Bucks, no occupation ; George Roch, 37, of Draycott-plade, Chelsea, no occupation; Thomas W. Powell, 36, of Paternoster House, PateV-noster-row, estate agent; Mabel Powell, 32, of Queen-square. Mayfair, married; Marjorie French, 28, also of Queensquare, married ; Emma Field, 40, of Groavcnor Mansions, Oxford-street, married. Mr. Arthur Newton appeared for all the defendants. THE .GAMING TABLE. Tl}9 green baize-covered table at Avhich tho players Avere seated at tho time of the raid had been brought by the police from tho house, and Mr. Muskett (Avhd prosecuted) suggested that the- Magistrate might like to see it later. _ A box of counters, red, white, atld pink, about the- size of a nVe-ehil-ling piece, Avhich represented in money , nearly £10,000 and Avas also seized in the raid, Avas produced in Court by Superintendent Kitch, of the Chelsea police.- • The counters Avere handed up to the Magistrate for examination. Each had ' its , value, stamped on. it< The values were : White, £100 each ) red, £50 each; pink, £25 each. Mr. Muskett, addressing the Magistrate, eaid they had to deal with ,a typical gaming house. ".There can . be 110 doubt that the ho; Use, Avhich Avas rented furnished for three months, \vas taken by M'Kay and Grosse to bo used as a gaming house. In order to give you A bare idea of the magnitude of the gaming carried on, it is necessary to tell you that the ,various persons gathered ' round the table at the time of the raid had before them counters fot chemiii-de-fer, representing £813 in money. The man Grosse, Ayho Avas acting as croupier, had in his immediate A-lcinity counters representing; anothfcr £0880.". / Superintendent Kitch then told of the rsud._ "Under a Avarrant from tho Commissioner, I went at 6.50 last eA-ening to a large private , house in Wiltoncrescent. In a large draAving-rootn' on the first floor a number of persons before the Court Avere sitting round a green baize-covered card table in the centro of the room. Twelve were round the table, and eleven were playing, but Mrs. Powell Avas sitting behiiid." '"What about the windows overlooking the 6treel?" enquired Mr. Musketi. "They Avero shuttered and bolted," was the ansAVer. "You could not see any light from the street." "Did you tell the company your business?" — '"Yes, I said : 'I am a superintendent of police,' and read tho Avarrant. They seemed dumbfounded." Was M'Kay searched? — He Avas. Did you find cheques for a large amount on him? — Yes. And various considerable sums on most of the persons there?— -Yes. The ten' men and three Avomen Avere then bound over in the sum of £50 to "be of good behaviour and abstain from frequenting gambling houses," and the case against the principals and the servants Avas adjourned. M'Kay and Grosse Avere admitted to bail in sureties of £1000 for each of them, Avhich was at once guaranteed, and they left the Court together.