“UNCONTROLLED EVIL”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20032, 2 September 1939, Page 14

“UNCONTROLLED EVIL”

BOOKMAKING IN N.Z. ASSISTANTS FINED £SO (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. Dealing with a bookmaker and two assistants in the Police Court to-day, the magistrate, Mr. F. H. Levien, referred to bookmaking as an evil uncontrolled, and expressed the opinion that the penalty prescribed was not heavy enough to stop boo km a king cropping up all over the city. The men before the court, Clarence William Russell, aged 54, Sydney Eddowes, aged 57, a storeman, and Vincent Edward Hickey, aged 39, a tobacconist, were three of the six men arrested on Monday afternoon when detectives raided a city office and seized a quantity of betting material. Russell was charged with using a room in the city as a gaming house. Eddowes and Hickey were charged with assisting in the management cf a gaming house.

Mr. Terry appeared for the three accused, who pleaded guilty. The police said that five men were found in the room. Russell came in while the police were in charge sad admitted that he was the proprietor and that Hickey and Eddowes were his assistants. The betting records showed that for 55 race meetings 7038 straight-out bets, totalling £15,193, were taken, and 2399 doubles and 245 trebles totalling £2281 were laid for the five weeks between. July 8 and August 19. Cheque butts between February 27 and August 21 showed cheques amounting to £7096 had been paid out. In A Large Way “Russell is regarded as the largest bookmaker in Auckland, if not the largest in New Zealand. He has previously been before the court for the same class of offence. Hickey and Eddowes have also been in trouble before for a breach of the Gaming Act,” added the police prosecutor. Mr. Terry did not agree that Russell was the largest 'bookmaker in Auckland, and emphasised his probity and honesty. He had not denied the charge and had not given the police any trouble over this matter. New Zealand was the only country in the British Empire where bookmakers were prosecuted. He asked the magistrate not. to inflict the maximum penalty. “My idea is to inflict such a penalty as will prevent what I and the law deem to be an evil,” said the magistrate. "People make bets who cannot afford to make them.”

Hickey and Eddowes were each fined £SO. IMr. Levien said he would give a decision in Russell’s case later in the day.