MIDWOOD GETS FOUR MONTHS IMPRISONMENT

Chronicle (Levin), 12 August 1947, Page 2

MIDWOOD GETS FOUR MONTHS IMPRISONMENT

NAPIER, August .11. A sentence of four months ' ha.rd labour was imposed by Mr. .Justice •Smith ou Aubrey Midwood, aged 2(1, a jockey, of Palmerston North, who was found guiltv on a charge of failing to stop after an accident. The .Tudge aiso sus[)ended Midwood 's driving licenee and disqualified him from obtaining another for three years. " Notwithstauding vour counsel 's plea, I find little excuse for vour conduct," said the Judge. "I ain quite satisfied from the evidence and from admissions in vour own statement to the police, that you were under the influence of liquor at the timq^of the collision. It is true you are not charged with being intoxicatcd while in charge of a' motor-car but if you had been cxamined that evening this charge might easily have been laid. Instead of reporting the collision to the police you niaintained continuous silence. The obrigation to report was upon you not upon the girl who was a passenger. About a ycar after the accident the girl, not you, reported to the police and wliatever the state of engagemcnt between the two of you at the time, she was entitled to the credit of briuging your part in this collision to the light of day. But for her it does not appear that the facts would over have been disclosed. In niy view tlie case is a bad one."