STILL FOUND IN BAKER'S POSSESSION

Chronicle (Levin), 12 March 1946, Page 4

STILL FOUND IN BAKER'S POSSESSION

CIIRISTCH URCH, lylareh 11. A copper still was exhibited in tllfe Magistrate's Court this moniing when Alexander Kyle, alias MeKay, aged 39 a baker, was charged before Mr. It Ferner, S.M., with having in his pos j session a still suitable for distiiling. Kvle pleaded guilty and was lined £190 The retort of tlie stili was made from two - 10-gallon wash-house coppers welded together and eonnected to a worni of copper tubmg. Brand ney\ funnels were aiso produced by tlu poliee together with a gas burner, whiei. was to have been used, the police alleged, to lieat the retort. Mr. A. W. Brovvn, for the Collectoi of Customs, said that when the poliee visited the premises on February 2S and entered a shed they foitnd two mm. erecting a stand for receiving a cask. While the detectives were there Kyle arrived in a taxi in which was found a retort, and iu a suitcase in Ivyle's room they found a worm. Kyle had admitted ownership of the -apparatus, which, he said, he intended to use for the pro duction of a spirit lo fortifv Wine he was making, but it had never been used. Mr. C. V. Lester, for Kyle, said thai it was obvious that the apparatus could not be set up without the knowledge of (he other oceupauts of t.he premises and it seerned likely that Kyle was taking the blame for what was a joint enterprise.