SEQUEL TO HOTEL RAID

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 51, 16 March 1937, Page 9

SEQUEL TO HOTEL RAID

Four People Fined In Napier LICENSEE'S PROBLEM The difficulty in distiuguishing guests from casual visitors in a crowded liotel, when a servant is asked to supply Iiquor after hours, was emphasised by Mr H. B. Lusk when he appeared in defence of the licensee, steward, and two visitors to the Masonic Hotel, when they appeared in tlie Napier Magistrate's Ourt before Mr J. Miller, S.M., yesterday. The prosecutions were a sequel to a police visit on February 19 last. Robert Chesney, the licensee, was fined £1 with 10/- costs for selling liquor after hours, Marcus George Neill was fined £1 with 10/- costs for "upplying liquor after hours, and David Fleming and Brian Lopdell, were each fined £2 with 10/- costs for being on licensed premises after hours. _ Senior-Sergeant A. Pender told of a visit to the hote] by Sergeant Carmody and Constable J. Greenlees. The two men, Fleming and Lopdell, oommenced to leave, and when questioned admitted that they had come for liquor. "There was an average of 64 people a mght in the house during February," said counsel, "and it was utterly impossible to know who were guests. There was nothing to distinguish these

two young men. from the guests. When they were offered coffee after dinner they said they preferred whisky, and were supplied." Robert Chesney gave evidence that during last month, there was an average of 64 people a night at the hotel, and it was impossible for the men- to distinguish lodgers from local people. BotW the men supplied were welldressed, and there was nothing to distinguish them from the guests. Similar evidence was given by Mar-p-us George Neill, the steward who supplied the other s. "I have to take all the circumstances 'nto account, and I think that the interests of justice will be mefc if I fix the minimuin penalty," said the magisfcrate. "These young fellows really represented that they were there lawfullv, and I think in cases like these they should be charged with assisting iu the commission of an offence, when the penalty would be much heavier."