MAGISTRATE’S COURT Fined And Disqualified For Reckless Use Of Car

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31111, 14 July 1966, Page 12

MAGISTRATE’S COURT Fined And Disqualified For Reckless Use Of Car

Brian Francis Johns, aged 20, a workman, who is at present serving a term in Borstal, pleaded guilty through his counsel (Mr R. S. Boland) in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday to a charge that on December 23 he used a motor car recklessly. He was convicted, fined £3O and disqualified for five years. Mr K. H. J. Headifen, S.M., was on the Bench. Traffic Officer J. E. L. Hume said that about 6 p.m. on December 23 he was in a parked mufti patrol car on the northern side of the Main South road close to the fertiliser works. Parked in front of him was another vehicle, and a third car was parked opposite on the southern side of the roadway.

Johns came out of a house and got into the car parked on the same side of the road as himself, Traffic Officer Hume said. Johns then accelerated away and pulled out, causing yet another car, which was about to overtake him, to swerve to avoid a collision. Johns’s acceleration was such that the car which had been forced to swerve was enveloped in a cloud of dust and was lost to his sight, Traffic Officer Hume said. The car which had been parked on the southern side of the roadway made a U turn and chased after Johns. He also gave chase, the traffic officer said.

The speed of Johns’s car and the other vehicle built up through 40 m.p.h. to 50 m.p.h. and rounding Motorways comer the cars were doing 60 m.p.h.

“Over that distance the two cars had changed positions several times and it was obvious they were racing,” he said. Johns was leading as the two cars raced up the Sockbum overbridge, and he had taken a left turn into Racecourse road. He rounded that comer toward the abattoir at an excessive speed. Traffic Officer Hume said he began sounding his siren and eventually the second car slowed. Johns seemed as though he could hear the siren, but gave the impression that he could not place where it was coming from. Johns then continued on at about 20 m.p.h. and entered the one-way underpass beneath the Sockbum overbridge while travelling in the wrong direction. Another vehicle had entered from the other side of the underpass and Johns’s car had collided with it. The impact was severe but no-one was injured.

Johns was then placed in the patrol car but absconded. However four other youths gave chase and brought him back.

In the Magistrate’s Court after the incident Johns had been convicted on a charge of unlawfully taking the car he had been driving and had been sentenced to Borstal training. “He has a formidable list of previous offences,” the traffic officer said. Charges against the driver of the other car involved with Johns in the racing had been

withdrawn as that driver had left New Zealand, he said. The Magistrate said that the incident was one of the worst examples of reckless driving it had ever been his displeasure to deal with, and the culminating fact was that Johns had entered a one-way underpass travelling in the wrong direction. FINED £l5 Yvonne Anne Dennett, aged 17, unemployed, pleaded guilty to charges that on June 30 she stole boots to the value of £5 19s 6d, the property of Olive Jean Smith, and that on July 7 she stole a pair of shoes, valued at £6, the property of Barbara Yvonne Draper, and a coat, valued at £ll, the property of Anette Evelyn Stewart. She was convicted and fined £5 on each of the three charges of theft. FINED £8 Sidney Christian Matehe, aged 19 an apprentice carpenter, pleaded guilty to charges that on July 13. being a minor, he was found in a public bar, that he gave false information, and that being a minor he purchased liquor from an employee of the bolder of an hotel-keeper's 11CC On e 'the charge of giving false particulars Matehe was convicted and fined £5, on the charge of being a minor on licensed premises he w-as convicted and fined £3, and on the charge of purchasing liquor he was convicted and ordered to pay court costs only. TRAFFIC CASES In charges brought by the Transport Department, convictions were entered and fines imposed, with court costs £1 10s on each charge, as follows: — Exceeded 30 miles an hour: Robert Conrad Croal, £8; Christopher Valintine McEvedy, £5; William Douglas Shennan, £3; David Francis Tracey, £8 (no warrant of fitness, £3 iOs); Frederick Hoffenk, £9; Denis Patrick Quinn, £8; Alfred Raymond Paulsey £2, ordered to attend course of traffic lectures: Albert Edward Fitzsimons, £5; John Paul Morris, £8 (exceeding 30 miles an hour without safety helmet, £3); lan Hamilton Robertson, £8; Gary James Seddon, £10; Mervyn Douglas Smith, £6: Leonard Huia Barr, £4; William Thomas Beauchamp, £6; John Paul Braun, £5; Robert Carpenter, £5: Shirley Ann Black, £6; John Ralph Anderson Chaffey, £8; James Barry Smale, £8; Graeme Herns Howden, £5: Edwin Alexander John Wilson, £3; Kenneth Barnes, £6 (no driver’s licence, £4); Francis Crehan, £5; Trevor Patrick Kirby, £8; George McSeveney, £6; Graham Alexander Nutt, £6; George William Odell, £5: Clarence Charles Pentecost, £7; Stewart Ross Pickering, £8; Redvers Herbert Raxworthy, £8: Kenneth Maxwell Collett, £5; George Edward Cone, £5; John Edmeads Dickie, £l2; Bruce John Fraser, £8; Soonseng Goh, £6; Elizabeth Ann Gould, £5; Basil Kelvyh Hempseed, £5; Reginald Thwaites Heseltine, £7; David Henry Kennedy, £7; Clive Maria Millanta, £6; Horace Moffat, £5: lan i Robinson, £6: Michael George Rossel], £8: WiUiam Adrianus Visker, £6; Reginald Smythe, £8; Gavin Walter McPherson Stewart, £10; Martin Ronald White, £8: Herbert Stanley Wilkinson, £4. Passing in a no-passing area: Francis Edward Galvin, £5. disqualified for three months. Exceeding 40 miles an hour with trailer: David Maxwell Lloyd, £5. No driver’s licence: Dudley William Hennessey, £lO, disqualified for six months (damaged tyre, £4). Failed to stop at compulsory stop sign: David Malcolm Bain, £5; Ashok Kumar Desai, £4; Vernon Lili, £8; Clalrmalre Bonnlface, £6. Failed to keep left: Warwick Stephen Neville, £5, ordered to attend three traffic lectures. Failed to give way: lan Russell Hughes, £8; Peter Patonai, £6 (no driver’s licence, £5). Unable to stop in half clear distance: Norman James Henderson, £B. No warrant of fitness: John Anthony James Devine, £3 (altered warrant of fitness, £10); Paul Francis Barke, £3 (failed to produce driver’s licence, £5); Pauline Beryl Fowlds, £3 (no driver’s licence £5, disqualified for six months).

No rear red light: Geoffrey Louis Slack, £lO.

Unreasonable use of warning device: Russell Gordon Veale. £2. Overtook on wrong side: Timothy James Thomson, £3, ordered to attend course of traffic lectures. Exceeded 55 miles an hour: Ronald Hayston, £l2: Graham Bruce Avery, £10; Trevor John Evans, £10; Hugh Royds Irving. £l5; Leslie Lisle, £10: Charles Edward Waldergrave. £l2. Insufficient lights: Michael James Mangin, £4: Derek Terence Sefton Moorhouse, £B. Wrongly adjusted lights: Michael McEvedy, £l. Failed to produce driver’s licence: David Wassell, court costs only. (Before Messrs L. C. Fulford and R. W. Gormack, Justices of the Peace) COMMITTED FOR TRIAL Charles William Crone, aged 46, a contractor (Mr R. G. Blunt), was committed to the Supreme Court for trial on a charge that he stole a transistor radio; valued at £29 19s 6d, the property of Sedley Wells. Ltd., Tuam street, on July 3. He pleaded not guilty.