MR. NBWNES (Cambridge, E., Newmarket)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that an exciseman at Great Wilbraham, Cambs., induced a carman named Dockerill to sell him half a pound of tobacco, and then issued a summons against him, with the result that Dockerill was fined £25 at the Bottisham Sessions on the 21st of October last; whether the Excise officer acted in accordance with his instructions; and whether he will cause an inquiry to be made into all the circumstanees of the case?
§ MR. MATTHEWSThe Commissioners of Inland Revenue inform me that the facts are these:—Complaints were received from local tradesmen in the neighbourhood of Great Wilbraham that illegal hawking of tobacco was being practised, and orders were given to the Excise officers to endeavour to prevent such infractions of the law. An Excise officer, having reason to believe that the carman Dockerill was one of the offenders, asked him if he did not sell tobacco, to which Dockerill replied in the affirmative, and then sold the officer half a pound. The magistrates who tried the case at first imposed a penalty of £50; but, with the consent of the Board of Inland Revenue, mitigated it to £25.