KENT NEWS:
Gurkha soldiers who were due to face a court martial for betting in local bookmakers around Shorncliffe Barracks have been given an 11th-hour reprieve.
Six members of 2 Royal Gurkhas, who are based in Folkestone, could have faced a two-year jail sentence, but the ban has now been overturned, according to a national newspaper.
The ban first came about in 2008 after wives complained the soldiers were frittering away their £16,000 salaries, The Sun reported.
The six who defied the orders were apparently flown to a hearing from their current base in Brunei at a cost of some £10,000.
But their solicitor, Gilbert Blades, said the ban breached their human rights and broke race laws as it discriminated against the Nepalese unit.
He also said it was “irrational”, since there were fruit machines at the barracks.
Mr Blades told the paper after Army prosecutors abandoned the case: “I should have had a bob or two on the result. Visiting a betting shop is a lawful activity.”
POSTED: 17/03/2010 15:07:13
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