Kinematograph year book (1944)

148 The Kinematograph Year Book. CUSTOMS AND EXCISE PROSECUTIONS. Customs and Excise Prosecution. Ticket Offence. — At Wimbledon Police Court on September 17 Odeon Theatres, Ltd., were fined £60 (£10 on each of six summonses) and ordered to pay 20 guineas costs, and their Morden manager, Donald Norman Holdsworth, £1 in each of six cases on summonses for failing to return portions of tickets on which the entertainments tax was assessed. Summonses against two employees, Ernest Longley and James H. King, both of Balham, were dismissed. Mr. Noble, who prosecuted, said there was no question of dishonesty against the company or the manager. What dishonesty had existed the company had been victims of. Irregularity had been caused by the company's servant without the connivance of the company or manager. Customs and Excise officials stated that when a string on which the half-portions of the issued tickets were filed was examined the portions of the tickets in question were not to be found. He admitted in cross-examination that there were 178 tickets on the string, and it was quite possible one had fallen off. Mr. Holdsworth said the employees had been given lessons from time to time regarding the issue of these tickets, and periodical tests had been made. The attendants were constantly changed in their duties to prevent co-operation or collusion. He was not aware of any irregularity up to the time of this complaint. Mr. Noble considered that there had been a deplorable state of affairs regarding the management by the proprietors. If there had been proper supervision this could not have happened. Fraudulent Employee. — Admission ticket irregularities at the Odeon, in Deptford Broadway, were attributed at Greenwich on October 22 to a cashier who, according to her confession, issued half tickets to Customs and Excise investigators in order to "make up deficiencesin her takings." Odeon Cinemas, Ltd., were fined a total of £112 ios., together with 20 guineas costs. Acting as relief manager at the time of the offences, Cuthbert Ritter, of Leytonstone, was fined £9. G. E. Baker, defending, emphasised that Odeon and Ritter were innocent parties to the irregularities. By virtue of the agreement with the Customs and Excise the company, he said, had even " made itself responsible for the dishonesty of its servants." " Of every twopence the Customs loses the company loses tenpence," he added. W. R. Howard, the magistrate, stated the summonses had " arisen from the fraudulent act of an employee." Used Tickets Resold.— Summoned by the Commissioners of Customs and Excise for issuing at the Highbury Picture Theatre, Holloway Road, Islington, tickets which had been previously used, General Theatre Corporation, Ltd., were at the North London Police Court ordered to pay penalties amounting to £30 and 10 guineas costs ; the manager, William Watson, of Laindon, Essex, was fined £10, with five guineas costs ; a relief manager, Leonard Philip Solomon, Maida Vale, was fined £8 ; Mrs. Connie Templeton, Highbury, a relief cashier, was fined £10, and Mrs. Ada Taylor, Stoke Newington, the cashier, was fined £6. There were pleas of guilty. P. C. R. Noble, prosecuting, said there was no evidence of fraud against the company or the two managers — the fraud had been committed by the two employees — but the company and the two managers were liable ; there had been a considerable degree of negligence which had resulted in the fraud taking place. In a statement Mrs. Templeton admitted that she had resold portions of tickets picked up from the floor, and said she resorted to the fraud because she had to make up shortages in the cash receipts on the sale of tickets and cigarettes. From time to time she had given Mrs. Taylor, the cashier, half-tickets for resale. Father and Daughter Shared.— At Staple Hill, Bristol, Police Court, William Henry Manning, a commissionaire at the Cabot Kinema, Filton, Bristol, and his daughter, Rhoda May Manning (19), a cashier at the same house, were charged with offences in connection with tickets. It was stated that the male defendant kept the whole ticket and gave the patron the half of an old used ticket. He later gave the whole tickets to his daughter, who resold them from the pay-box. Manning was fined £15 and £2 5s. costs. His daughter, who was bound over for a year, was ordered to pay £2 5s. costs. Tinkering with Tickets.— That this was a case of dishonest employees was stated by Vernon Gattie, counsel for the company, when Union Cinemas, Ltd., of Golden Square, W.i, were fined £30 and 10 guineas costs at Clerkenwell on April 12, upon summonses for admitting persons to the Electric Palace, Highgate Hill, N.19, without issuing tickets to them, and transferring persons to higher -priced seats without issuing tickets. Stanley Ropson Lillie, manager, and Arthur George Nicholls, a relief manager, were each fined £10 and five guineas costs. Florence Maud Baker, usherette, and Walter Crowe, an attendant, were each fined £5. Mr. Gattie said the company and the manager and relief manager were responsible in law, but had got no benefit out of this. The box-office had to be closed at black-out time, owing to its situation, and instructions were given that any customers who came later were to be referred to the manager's office, where tickets were issued to them. These instructions were not carried out. JUVENILE DELINQUENCY. Films and Juvenile Crime.— When three 16-year-old Swansea boys pleaded guilty at Towyn (Merioneth) Juvenile Court to nine charges of theft, one father stated that he considered the kinemas and the types of films shown had had a detrimental effect on his boy. Lord Atkin, who presided, said he could not agree that films encouraged youths to steal. The boys were each bound over for two years. Juvenile Delinquency.— Exhibitors have suffered considerably from the wave of juvenile delinquency which is sweeping the country. All over the country there have been instances of hooliganism, sometimes resulting in personal injury to staffs, more frequently in malicious damage to theatre equipment and furnishings. In other cases there have been thefts of film, of takings and even of blocks of tickets. Offenders' ages range from nine years upwards. Complaint has been made of too lenient treatment of offenders when they are charged. In most cases magistrates have considered the case met by placing the defendants on probation, sometime