Dennis v Willmore    Metropolis – Street trading – Licences – Duration – London County Council (General
Powers) Act 1927 (c xxii), s 39.
The respondent sold apples from a barrow in a street within the Metropolitan Borough of
Poplar. It was the custom of the Poplar Borough Council to issue one-day licences to street
traders, but though the respondent had been issued with several of these licences in the past,
he was not in possession of one on the day in question. He was summoned for selling goods
from a barrow without a licence contrary to LCC (General Powers) Act 1927, s 39. The
learned magistrate dismissed the summons on the ground that the borough council having
granted a licence, they could not dispute its validity; and also upon the ground that the
prosecution was instituted to test the system of one-day licences and was not bona fide:—