Hasson v Neilson
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judgment Date | 12 May 1908 |
| Date | 12 May 1908 |
| Docket Number | No. 14. |
| Court | High Court of Justiciary |
Lord Justice-Clerk, Lord Low, Lord Ardwall.
Statutory Offences—Betting—Street Betting Act, 1906 (6 Edw. VII. cap. 43), secs. 1 (1) and (4) and 3—‘Passage.’—
The Street Betting Act, 1906, sec. 1 (1), enacts that ‘any person frequenting or loitering in streets … for the purpose of … betting’ shall be liable to a penalty. Sec. 1 (4) enacts that ‘for the purpose of this section the word “street” shall include any … public … passage,’ and sec. 3 enacts that ‘in Scotland …“passage” includes common close or common stair, or passage leading thereto.’
In a prosecution under the Act for loitering in a public passage for the purpose of betting, it was proved (a) that the passage in question was a passage to which the public had no right of access, but to which the public in fact could obtain access owing to the lock of the door being broken, and (b) that it led directly to a court which gave access to at least one common stair.
Held that the passage in question was not a public passage within the meaning of sec. 1 (4) of the Street Betting Act, 1906; and (2) that it was not a passage leading to a common close or common stair within the meaning of sec. 3 of that Act.
David Hasson was charged in the Western District Police Court, Glasgow, upon a complaint, under the Glasgow Police Acts, the Summary Jurisdiction (Scotland) Acts, 1864 to 1881, and the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act, 1887, at the instance of George Neilson, writer, Glasgow, Procurator-fiscal of Court, in which it was alleged that the accused did on ‘Friday, 14th June 1907, loiter in a public passage, videlicet, a common passage at 167 Finnieston Street, and in a public court, videlicet, a common court at 169 Finnieston Street, both of Glasgow, said passage and court each being a street within the meaning of the Street Betting Act, 1906, on behalf either of himself or of some other person to the complainer unknown, for the purpose of betting on horse races with David Alexander, of 2 Hill Street, Anderston, Glasgow, and with four men whose names and addresses are to the complainer unknown, being an offence contrary to and within the meaning of the Street Betting Act, 1906, sections 1 and 3 thereof, and such offence is the first offence, whereby the accused is liable to a fine.’*
The accused pleaded not guilty, but after evidence had been led he was found guilty by the Magistrate of the offence charged as libelled, but that only in the public passage libelled, and was fined £10, with the alternative of sixty days' imprisonment.
Hasson appealed upon a case...
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