Bookmaker and Sister Are Fined

January 1968

South Yorkshire Times January 20, 1968

Bookmaker and Sister Are Fined

When Customs and Excise  Officers checked the records of a Conisbrough bookmaker they found that betting slips totalling about £11,000 had not been entered said Mr. J. Walker, prosecuting at Doncaster West Riding Court on Tuesday

H Haigh (Turf Accountants) Ltd. and the firm’s director, Harold Haigh of Ellershaw Close were each charged with seven offences of fraudulent evasion of general betting duty.

Haigh’s sister, Edna Fawdon of Hamlin Road, Conlabrough, who assists in the business was also charged with three similar offences.

All the charges were admitted. Haigh and the firm were each fined a total of £175 and Edna Fawdon was fined a total of £75.

Three

Mr. Walker said that the firm had throe betting shops in Ellershaw Close. Wembley Avenue and Church Street. Conisbrough.

“The Customs and Excise Inspectors plated test bets at the firm’s three offices. Some were later traced in the firm’s returns but others were not” said Mr. Walker.

Further bets laid were also not traced, he said.

Of the firms returns. it was found that more than 35.000 bets had not been entered, Involving £11.274 in stake money, on which duty of £281 15s. 0d. should have been paid, said Mr. Walker.

Muddle

“The records at the office in Ellershaw Close were found to be in a considerable muddle” said Mr. Walker.

When Haigh was told about the bets which had been laid and not traced he said he could not explain this.

Mr. P. Pickles, who represented all the defendants, said that they could still offer no explanation of the offences but he assured the magistrates that steps would be taken to prevent a recurrence.

The chairman, Mr. Sydney Firth told Mr. Walker he had sat on these cases before and he was quite sure that it the bookmakers and the Customs and Excise people got together a more simple system could be devised.