A betting charge

It is very rare that an occasional court is held at Cheshunt police station on a Bank Holiday, but such was the case on Monday, when Messrs J. Cull and F.B. Debenham attended for the hearing of cases which cropped up during the weekend.  Adolf Kleiser, watchmaker, of Turners Hill, Cheshunt, was charged with loitering for the purpose of betting or settling bets at Turners Hill on May 22.  The prisoner pleaded not guilty.  P.S. Canter said that at 12.45 p.m. he was in company with P.C. Trundell, and he saw a man sitting on a seat opposite Cheshunt Police Station reading a mid-day paper.  They went and sat on the same seat, and saw the man write on a piece of paper ‘2s. 6d win, My Daughter, B.D.’.  The man then got up and walked to the ‘George’ public-house and waited outside.  The defendant came out, and the man gave him some money and a piece of paper.  Kleiser then went to a shop opposite, and in a minute or so emerged with a black bag, which he put in the front of a bicycle, and then rode towards Waltham Cross.  The witness and P.c. Trundell followed, and when opposite the Stores the witness arrested him.

When told of the charge he said: ‘If that is so, I must go.  You have been a long time catching me.’  He was taken to the station and charged, but he made no reply.  In the black bag on the bicycle were found three slips (produced).  P.c. Trundell gave corroborative evidence.  Station Sergt. Drew said that when searched at the station the accused had 3s. 6d. in silver and 3 1/2d.coppers on him.  The betting slips were in the black bag, together with one or two tools used by the defendant in his business as a watchmaker.  Asked if he had anything to say, the accused replied that he did not put the slips in the bag, and he suggested that someone else must have put them in.  On this evidence the accused was remanded until Wednesday, June 2, being granted bail, himself in £10 and a surety a like sum.

Hertfordshire Mercury 5th June 1915
Transcript
At Cheshunt Petty Sessions, Adolf Kleiser, watchmaker and a German subject, of 110 Turner’s Hill, Cheshunt, was charged on remand with loitering for the purpose of betting, or settling bets, at 12.45 p.m. on May 22 at Cheshunt. The defendant pleaded not guilty. Sergt. Caunter, of Enfield Highway, repeated the evidence given at the occasional court last week, and reported in the last issue. It was to the effect that, after keeping observation on the defendant, he was arrested, and in a black hand-bag on his bicycle was found two betting slips. Station-Sergt. Drew deposed to searching the black hand-bag in the presence of the defendant and finding the two betting slips produced. P.c. Foord, who was on reserve duty at the station, said that no-one went near the defendant’s bicycle or hand-bag until the defendant took it into the station himself, in company with Sergt. Drew. The defendant said he admitted the slips were found in his bag, but how they got there he did not know. He did not put them there himself.

The Bench convicted, and imposed a fine of £10 and 5s. special costs, or two months’ imprisonment.