Cops bust 78-year-old Charles Allen for running upper East Side gambling ring
BY Oren Yaniv and Rob Sgobbo
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
July 22, 2010



Cops say they've busted up what was an old-fashioned upper East Side gambling ring run by a 78-year-old bookie.

Charles Allen of E. 86th St., who pleaded not guilty on Wednesday, handled $1.3 million in sports bets in nine months, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The money changed hands at Carlow East, a fusty Irish bar on Lexington Ave. near E. 85th St., court papers say.

Bar owner John Spratt, 57, of Queens also was charged, along with Queens County Civil Supreme Court officer Vincent Killackey, 44, who worked part-time as a bartender, and his father, William Killackey, 71, of Hackensack, N.J.

A dejected Spratt said he was being railroaded by cops who took his Super Bowl pool and used it against him.

"I had nothing to do with the gambling. I can't believe I'm involved in this," he said. "I worked my whole life for everything and I never took a cent."

All four men pleaded not guilty and were released on their own recognizance. Leaving court, they shook hands with the cops who arrested them.

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