Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 22 May 1931
Denaby Poachers
Offenders all Round
Heavy fines were imposed in two Denaby men, Charles King, plasterer, and Harry King, plasterer’s labourer, at Doncaster on Tuesday for poaching at Pickburn on April 2nd.
Mr W.L. Crawford said that four gamekeepers were keeping observation on land occupied by Robert Burrow at Pickburn, when at 6:20 a.m. a motorcycle driven by the defendants came along. The pillion rider, Harry King, dismounted, went into a field and fired a shot, though what he shot at and whether he shot anything they could not see. He came back and mounted the cycle, which commenced to move off. The keeper stopped it, and when one of them asked Charles King if he had a driving licence he said he had not. To the charge of trespass in pursuit of game they made no reply.
A police constable said he saw defendants at 7 a.m., detained by four gamekeepers. Harry King said he had no licence to carry a gun. Witness found that Charles King had no driving licence, no road fund licence, no insurance certificate, and the identification plates on the cycle were false. Harry King remarked, “I wish I’d stayed at home this morning,” and Charles said, “it is rotten luck.”
Both defendants said they were on the “dole.”
The Chairman (Mr G.E.Cooke Yarborough): Why did you get your identification plate from?
Charles King: I made it myself.
Addressing Charles King, the Chairman said: “it is very difficult to know how to deal with you. You’re committed almost every offence under the Motor Act that you can commit, and you did it deliberately. That is what you do living on the dole.”
Charles King was fined 40 shillings for each of the charges, in respect of the motorcycle, and 20 shillings a game trespass, a total of £9, while Harry King, who had 34 previous convictions was fined 40 shillings and costs.