Car Firm’s Breaches Similar Penalty On Rehearing

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31113, 16 July 1966, Page 3

Car Firm’s Breaches Similar Penalty On Rehearing

(Neto Zealand Press Association) HAMILTON, July 15. Fleetwood Motors, Ltd., had its trading licence cancelled and was fined a total of £BO at a rehearing today by Mr Stewart Hardy, S.M., of two charges involving breaches of the MotorVehicle Dealers’ Act.

A similar penalty was imposed by Mr Hardy at the original on June 12. The charges which arose out of the sale of a car owned by an Auckland woman were: that the company failed in its obligation, as an agent, to pay all the money received from the sale of the car; and t at it failed to render an account in writing to the former owner setting out details of money received from the sale within seven days, as required by the act The company pleaded guilty to both charges. Its counsel, Mr H. Taylor, of Wellington, claimed the breaches were the result of one man's actions and that the company was ignorant of the whole affair.

He urged the magistrate to reconsider his earlier decision to cancel the company’s licence, submitting that the penalty was out of all proportion to the gravity of the offence. He said Fleetwood Motors' profit last year was £4540 before tax, compared with the previous year’s profit of £17,000. The magistrate said the previous monetary penalty imposed was “only small change” when the seriousness of the offences was taken into consideration. “The public interest is paramount and must take precedence over that of com- , pany shareholders,” he said. “A very responsible officer of the company was involved in these breaches. Members of the public are entitled to believe they will be dealt with honestly.”