‘The police are rottenly corrupt’: Policing, scandal, and the regulation of illegal betting in Depression-era Sydney
| Author | Richard Evans |
| DOI | 10.1177/0004865814543392 |
| Published date | 01 December 2015 |
| Date | 01 December 2015 |
Australian & New Zealand
Journal of Criminology
2015, Vol. 48(4) 572–587
!The Author(s) 2014
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DOI: 10.1177/0004865814543392
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Article
‘The police are rottenly
corrupt’: Policing, scandal, and
the regulation of illegal betting
in Depression-era Sydney
Richard Evans
Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
Abstract
One groundbreaking aspect of the Wood Royal Commission into police corruption in
New South Wales was to recognize the importance of the historical dimension of corruption.
The historical consensus is that systemic police corruption emerged in NSW only after the
Second World War but, as Wood acknowledged, there has been little detailed research into
earlier periods. One window into policing in the 1930s is provided by the Markell Royal
Commission, which investigated allegations of police misconduct in relation to illegal book-
making in 1936. This article explores the evidence gathered by Markell, and argues that his
inquiry uncovered a system of entrenched police corruption at a level of complexity previ-
ously thought not to have appeared for another decade. It is argued that poor management
contributed to the growth of systemic corruption from the early 1930s, and that a defensive
and negative reaction to the exposure of this corruption caused an historic opportunity for
reform to be lost.
Keywords
Commissions of inquiry, corruption, history, illegal gambling, policing, Royal Commissions
Introduction
Few major scandals have had a beginning as unremarkable as the arrest of William
Mowlds, ham and beef shop proprietor of Dulwich Hill, Sydney, on a charge of illegal
betting. At noon on Saturday 18 November 1933, Mowlds’ shop was raided by Sergeant
Daniel Gallivan and constables Perrett, Nelson and Miller. Mowlds denied he had any-
thing to do with illegal betting, but the police searched his house and arrested him.
1
At trial, police alleged that some lists of horses and betting odds found on the prem-
ises showed Mowlds to be an illegal bookmaker. Constables Perrett and Nelson both
testified that they had seen Mowlds take two bets and phone the details to another
Corresponding author:
Richard William Evans, Deakin University, Geelong 3220, Australia.
Email: richard.evans@deakin.edu.au
bookmaker. Mowlds protested his innocence. However, he was convicted, and fined £20.
On appeal, this was reduced to £5.
2
Mowlds’ case was as unremarkable as a drink driving charge would be in modern
Australia. There had been 1034 prosecutions for betting offences in Sydney and
Newcastle alone in the September quarter of 1933 (Sun, 23 November 1933, p. 26).
This figure was high, but not exceptional. Gambling offences made up the largest
single category of arrest in New South Wales in this period (McCoy, 1981). And yet
the Mowlds’ case would shake policing in New South Wales to its foundations, and in so
doing create a valuable historical record of the mechanics of police corruption and the
regulation of illegal industries.
In his detailed historical study of NSW police in the period 1930–1939, Seggie argues
that there is little evidence of other than low-level corruption in this period. While
changes to policing, such as the introduction of elite squads set the scene for later
endemic corruption, this did not occur until after the Second World War (Seggie,
1988, pp. 367–368). Similarly, McCoy argues that the social disruption and distorted
economy of Sydney during and immediately after the Second World War created con-
ditions ideal for the growth of illegal enterprises, and that systemic police corruption was
one consequence (McCoy, 1980).
This line of thinking was accepted by the Wood Royal Commission (1995–1997). The
Commission’s final report notes the Markell inquiry, but only in passing (Wood, 1997,
p. 44). In the published version of a research paper prepared for the Wood Commission,
Finnane writes that ‘the main historical account of organised crime in New South Wales’
argues ‘that prior to the second world war such crime was of limited significance, and
easily addressed through vigorous policing’ (Finnane, 1999, p. 28). However, as Finnane
notes, this view ‘underestimates the incidence of police corruption seen in broader
terms’, and that ‘there simply has been too little historical investigation of such conduct
for us to be confident in making judgments about the extent of misconduct or gross
corruption.’
This article is intended to help fill this research gap. It is argued here that the inquiry
which eventuated from the Mowlds’ raid reveals that, at least in the special squads,
process corruption was routine in the 1930s, and that larger scale systems of graft and
protection were almost certainly well established.
Policing unpopular laws
The custom of gambling arrived in New South Wales with the First Fleet, and was an
unremarkable and widespread part of colonial society. Protestant social reformers had
campaigned against gambling since the 1870s, however, and in 1906 they succeeded in
having an act suppressing off-course betting passed (O’Hara, 1981, 1988). This law was
spectacularly unsuccessful. ‘Starting price’
3
or ‘SP’ betting, as the illegal trade was usu-
ally known, remained a substantial industry through the 1920s, and boomed in the
depression years. McCoy describes how by the mid-1930s, ‘bookmakers could be
found at the bar of almost every hotel, positioned near the pay telephone’ (1981, p. 40).
The laws against SP bookmaking were almost impossible to enforce. Like sly-grog
selling, SP was a ‘victimless’ crime. Many people, particularly in working class areas, saw
nothing wrong in gambling and resented attempts to prevent it. Provided bookmakers
Evans 573
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