INTOXICATED IN CHARGE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22520, 30 September 1938, Page 20

INTOXICATED IN CHARGE

DRIVER PINED £2O

"The evidence satisfies me that this-man-was unfit to drive by reasonof intoxication," said Mr E. C Levvey, S.M- in the Magistrate's Court yesterday, when he fined John Henry Miller £2O for being intoxicated in charge of a motor-car. Miller's licence wasj cancelled and he, .was prohibited from obtaining another for 12 months The prosecution arose from incidents which occurred near the Riccarton racecourse four months ago, when- a man,. Robert White -Extpn, was foUnd lying. injured on the road about .midnight. Miller was charged -on two counts, one of "intoxication in charge and the other of failing to report -an accident. The Magistrate accepted the submission of Mr R. A. Young, for Miller, that there had been no evidence tp connect Miller with the accident; and the charge of failure to report was dismissed. ~ A statement by Miller to the police was read. In it the accused said that he had met Exton at the Racecourse Hotel. Late at night he helped Exton on to his bicycle. The accused wenl back to his car. where he found a woman who had been with them in the hotel. She insisted on being driver home. The accused later found Exton on the road and helped him to the hut where he lived.. . Mr Young said that the case had apparently arisen through a constable on his rounds in the Public Hospital finding an injured man. He submitted tha the defence had been prejudiced by the lapse of four months since the relevant incidents.