Criminal Law & Practice in Scotland

Published date01 April 1955
DOI10.1177/0032258X5502800204
Date01 April 1955
Subject MatterArticle
CRIMINAL
LAW
AND
PRACTICE
IN
SCOTLAND
103
prisoner has committed it, their verdict should be
"not
guilty".
"Let
us leave
out
of
account, if we
can",
said
Lord
Goddard,
C.l.,
"any
expression such as 'giving the prisoner the benefit
of
the
doubt'.
It
is
not
aquestion
of
giving him the benefit
of
the
doubt,
for if the
jury
are left with any degree
of
doubt
that
the prisoner is guilty, the
case has
not
been proved".
'ASSISTING'
IN
COMMITTING
BETTING
ACT
OFFENCES
Baxter v. Keldon
Sections 3
and
4
of
the Betting Act, 1853, are quite distinct,
for
section 3imposes amaximum penalty
of
£100 or a sentence
of
six
months'
imprisonment upon the person who opens abetting house,
keeps it, or permits it to be kept and assists in conducting the business
there, while section 4imposes a less severe penalty
of
£50 or three
months'
imprisonment
upon
aperson acting for or on
behalf
of
the
owner or occupier
of
abetting house, or in any
manner
assisting
in conducting the business there
"who
shall receive directly or in-
directly any
money"
in respect
of
betting.
In
Baxter
v. Keldon (1955, I
W.L.R.
84) a
bookmaker's
runner
acting on
behalf
of
aperson who conducted the business
of
abetting
house received money
and
betting slips in the street
and
took
them
to the office to be sorted
and
recorded.
The
runner
was charged with
assisting in conducting
the
business contrary to section 3
of
the Act.
The
metropolitan
magistrate dismissed the information and
the
prosecutor unsuccessfully appealed to the Divisional Court.
It
was
held
that
since section 4created asubstantive offence on a person
doing the very acts which the defendant
had
done, he
had
committed
an offence under
that
section
and
not under section 3,
and
he should
not, therefore, have been rendered liable to the
more
severe penalty
by being charged with assisting in the commission
of
an offence under
the latter section.
Lord
Goddard,
C.l.,
remarked
that
the case was
astriking instance
of
the curiously unsatisfactory state
of
the betting
laws
and
that
no blame attached to the Police for having
brought
the
prosecution under section 3.
Criminal
Law
&
Practice
in Scotland
PAYMENT
OF
GARAGE
CHARGES
FOR
CAR
FOUND
ABANDONED
ALT HO UG H they do not strictly fall under the heading
of
"Criminal
Law", two recent decisions by Scottish courts should
be carefully noted by police officers.
The
first
(S.M.
T. Sales &
Services Co. Ltd. v. General Finance Co. Ltd.) is reported in 1954

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