FINE OF £30 IMPOSED

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 123, 10 June 1937, Page 4

FINE OF £30 IMPOSED

Gaming-House Charge POLICE RAID IN HASTINGS A police raid in Davis street, Hastings, last evening, had its sequel in the Hastings Magistrate's CdUrt this morning when Francis Stanley Rhodes appeared before Mr J. Millei', S.M., * charged with allowing rooms in Davis street to be used as a common gamipg house. Mr W. E. Bate appeared for Rhodes, who pleaded guilty. A fine of £30 was imposed, two months being allowed in which to pay. » Detective-Bergeant L. Revell said that he executed a search warrant and found betting apparatus on defendant' s premises. It was defendant' s first offence. Mr W E. Bate explained that the defendant had been driven to taking up gjarobling. He had had a series of misfortunes and had lost heavily when . farming at Dannevirke. He suffered an injury and gave up farming, coming to Hastings, where he bought * small dairy but he lost more money. and finished up by being unemployed. . He unwiseiy clrifted into the gambling business, but operat'ed only on a small scale and had not been doing it for long. "This man is not a bookmaker in a big way but he could have been charged with carrying on the . business of a bookmaker instead of the present niin,or charge,'' remarked the ^Magistrate. The law looked eeriously npon bookmabing, and defendant had known quite well the risk he was taking.