LICENSEE FINED

Hokitika Guardian, 2 November 1929, Page 3

LICENSEE FINED

ASSAULT AND KEEPING OPEN. (Byj Telegraph—Press Association). AUCKLAND, November 1." ThPmas Richards, licensee oT Gleeson’s Hotel, was charged at the Police Court with- assault, opening premises illegally and selling liquor after hours. Evidence was given by Kenneth Douglas, Lesie Wilson, and George Couch, advertising manager, dentist, and watchmaker respectively, that they went into Gleeson’s Hotel about 10.30 p.m. on September 27th. The licensee admitted them and they pad drinks in the bar. Douglas and Richards had a dispute whether Massey or Ward was the best Prime Minister. Richards offered to fight Douglas who went out of the bar into the passage where Richards struck him several . times on the head and face. The barman joined in and Douglas was thrown into the street. Douglas said he had a lame leg and a muscle of his left arm had -been removed so that lie could not fight. Richards, in defence, denied that the three men named had been in the hotel. He said he had never seen them before. He denied selling them liquor. Mr Hunt, S.M„, said the three men were perfectly respectable citizens and bad perfectly believable stories. The assault on a crippled man was a particularlv brutal one.

Richards was fined £lO for assault, £lO for selling liquor illegally, and his license was endorsed.