“Arrogant Lout” Fined

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31082, 10 June 1966, Page 7

“Arrogant Lout” Fined

f.V.Z. Press Association) NEW PLYMOUTH, June 9. Polce action in warning a “hell’s angels” motor - cycle gang when they arrived in New Plymouth on Saturday was commended by Mr A. W. Yortt, S.M.

Geoffrey Michael Strickland, aged 20, pleaded guilty to carrying an offensive weapon, a horse whip, and was fined £2O.

“The police evidently persuaded you and your friends to leave New Plymouth to avoid any possible disturbances—and I think they should be commended for their action,” the Magistrate told Strickland. *

“I notice by the newspapers that your friends got into trouble in another town.

“It is youths like you, who adopt an arrogant attitude towards the police, that give teen-agers such a bad name." Senior-Sergeant B. G. Waller said thaf at 4.15 p.m. on Saturday, the police were called to an intersection where a large number of “Hell’s Angels” had gathered. Strickland was with the group and had a whip draped around his neck. When asked what it was for he replied “for hitting nosy cops with.” Strickland admitted carrying the whip “to keep people in check.” Strickland had treated the matter as a joke and had given a false name to the police when he was asked. Senior-Sergeant Waller described Strickland as “an arrogant lout.” He had appeared in the Magistrate’s Court at Auckland on May 16 on charges of wilful damage and resisting arrest. Strickland told the Magistrate that he had come down from Auckland in a car, not with the motor-cycle gang.

The Magistrate: Are you a member of the gang?

Strickland: I was. Before you came you knew they would be down here and you would meet them —I didn’t think I would meet them. They left a day or so earlier than us. Strickland said he had found the whip lying on the road and picked it up not

thinking it was an offensive weapon.

Asked by the Magistrate why he said he would use it on “nosey cops” he replied: “I must have been silly in the head at the time ... I don't think I would have used it.” The Magistrate said he was satisfied that if Strickland had been given the opportunity, he would have used the whip.