My Criminal Life
| Author | Bent |
| Published date | 01 January 1980 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X8005300135 |
| Date | 01 January 1980 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The continuing story
of
19th Century England. . . .
MY
CRIMINAL
LIFE
BY
SUPERINTENDENT
BENT
CHAPTER
XIJ.
Beerhouse Offences.
It sometimes happened to be my duty to endeavour to detect
beerhouse-keepers who were suspected ofselling liquor during illegal
hours. I remember on one occasion at Newton Heath, one of the
fraternity who, I think, had made up his mind to defy the law in every
possible and imaginable way, by selling during prohibited hours,
gambling with all sorts of instruments, permitting drunkenness and
disorderly conduct, and so forth. He had been fined the full penalty
of £5 several times, but this did not appear to have any deterrent
effect upon him. One day I caught him offending, and he was
summoned for a breach of his licence and again fined £5
and
costs,
and
althoughhe
seemed sharp enough to evade the police on a great
many occasions, Ithink that in the case I have mentioned he was
rather outwitted.
He was allowed a month in which to pay his fine and costs, and at
the expiration of that time he came to the Police Stationjustas I was
going to bed, bringing £5
lIs.
in penny-pieces. Naturally, I felt very
angry at this, but as he insisted upon a receipt, there was nothing left
for me to do but to sit down and count the copper. Beingannoyed by
the man's evident desire to cause me as much trouble as possible, I
determined, if I could possibly manage it, to pay him back in his own
coin. I therefore commenced to count the coins, and as soon as I got
up to lOs., I told him I was afraid I had made a mistake, and that I
must go over it again, which I accordingly did. All the while he kept
repeating
that
he was in a hurry to get home, and that he
had
other
business to attend to. I replied that unless he waited until I had
finished counting the money, I could give him no receipt, and would
not do so.
Having taken
about
ahour to count the money, I then picked out
about
twenty pennies, which I showed him were bright with pitching
on the table,
and
about
fifty others which were not legible and which
Police Journal January 1980 100
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