FINED FOR BETTING

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10608, 15 April 1912, Page 5

FINED FOR BETTING

PENALTY OF £2O.

MASTERTON MAN MAKES WAGERS IX BILLIARD ROOM.

(Special to the N.Z. Times.)

•AUCKLAND, April 12. i A well known Mastertou resident, Thomas Dwyer, .was charged to-day on three counts with having hotted in a public place, to wit, a billiard room, j The dates of the offences were March. 23rd and April 3rd. Mr A. L. Deniston, who appeared . for defendant, stated that his client I j iu Mastorton had kept a motor gar-J age. His wife had property iu Auckliuid, and the two of them had come to Auckland to enter into legitimate business. Tt was while waiting to drop aeiws something that Dwyer bad made the bet complained of. He had no intention of carrying on a 1 business a.s a bookmaker. In Mastor ton he was well known and resepcted, and he wa.s prepared to give an .undertaking that ho would never again do any betting of any sort, , Sub-Tiip.pee.tbr-: Hendrey stated/•that. in defendant's .possession, the .police found a book which showed that he had been following betting. . No doubt his past reputation was- good, but unfortunately for himself he had launched into this illegal form of obtaining a livelihood. He had made these hots with the full knowledge that every time, lie did fio ho was rendering himself liable to a penalty of £IOO, but lie had taken the risk.

The Magistrate: This does not appear to be a case in which tho man has been carrying on a systematic business for a. long time. Anyway, I think it is a case in which I would not do wrong in inflicting the maximum penalty on one of three charges. You are fined £2O and costs, and on the other two you are convicted and discharged. His Worship pointed out to defendant that it wa.s unlawful to make as well as to take a bet. The recent arreste of eighty persons in the police raid had been mostly for making bets. The terms on whicu. he convicted: and discharged defendant on *wo of the charges were that he kept clear of betting altogether. On a charge of being found in a common gaming hou-so by the police in the recent raid, Dwyer pleaded guilty, and wa"> fined £l.