INTOXICATED MOTORIST

Chronicle (Levin), 5 March 1947, Page 4

INTOXICATED MOTORIST

FINE OF £20 AND LICENCE CANCELLED Pleading guilty to being in charge of a motor vehicle while in the state of intoxication, Joseph Trembath, carpenter of Makerua, was convicted and fined £20 at a special sitting of the Magi.strate's Court, Levin, this morning. An order was also made for the cancellation of his driving licence, and he was prohibited from obtaining another for a period of three years. When en tering a conviction, Messrs. D. J. Gardiner and J. W. Rimmer, J.P.'s., stated that in view of the fact that defendant had previously been convicted for a similar offence, the charge had to be regarded in a very serious light. The travelling public had to be protected, and if the police had not been in the vicinity a serious accident might have occurred. " - An application by Trembath for the suppression of his name was r.efused by the bench. For the police, Sergeant W. Grainger said that Trembath had been seen by Constable Gillespie, seated in the driving seat of a car in Oxford Street at about 6.20 p.m, last night. He was conversing- with his brother, and was obviously/in a state of intoxication.' He had the car keys in his posscssion and when requested by Constable Gillespie to get out of the vehicle, he had been unsteady on his feet. A doctor who later examined him had certified that he was in an unfit state to drive a motor vehicle. Sergeant Grainger said he considered defendant would have driven the car away had he not been detected. Judgment was entered as stated above.