SIX MONTHS' GAOL FOR CONVERSION OF TWO VEHICLES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 26, 29 November 1948, Page 5

SIX MONTHS ' GAOL FOR CONVERSION OF TWO VEHICLES

Thomas William James, alias Thomas Baines, pleaded guilty in the Police Court at Whakatane on Friday to two charges of vehicle conversion, chose to be dealt with summarily and was sentenced to three months’ gaol on each charge, cumulative, by Messrs C. S. Armstrong, R. T. Morpeth and H. G. Warren, J’s. P. A charge of resisting the police was withdrawn. Accused was remanded to the Magistrate’s Court at New Plymouth on December 3 on a charge of breaking, entering and theft at F. E. j Hamley’s counting house at Ingle- | wood on September 18. I Prosecuting, Detective T. Sneddon said James was a stranger to this district, who had come here about a month ago and taken a job at a sawmill under the name of Baines. Then he got work as a farmhand on Mr A. W. Thompson’s property at Manawahe. There it was that he conceived the idea of leaving the district on ; November 19 in his employer’s car, so he wheeled it out on the road, started it up and rolled it over two miles away from the farm, doing £6B worth of damage to a vehicle valued at £6OO. > After the crash, he walked to the hall nearby, and converted a truck belonging to Mr G. Logan and worth £375 with the idea of driving to the J mill to get a rope and pull Thomp--1 son’s car back onto its wheels again. Realising he was persued by Mr Logan and a hastily-organised party from the hall, James abandoned the truck. Constable R. F. Julian accosted him later at the Matata railway station where a ■ train was just ready to depart. ! Giving the name of Baines, accused said he had just arrived on the train. Then he tried to clear out, but the Constable and the Transport Department’s traffic inspector, Mr J. Kehoe, grabbed him ' and held on, despite his struggles, i Detective Sneddon expressed appreciation of the Traffic Officer’s ready and valuable assistance.