Verdicts Of Guilty Against Motor Mechanic

Chronicle (Levin), 21 July 1949, Page 6

Verdicts Of Guilty Against Motor Mechanic

Verdicts of guilty on each of two' charges of theft and one of false pretences, were re'turned by a jury in the Supreme Court at Palmerston North yesterday at the' conclusion of the trial of- Keith Stewart Dawson, a motor-mechanic, married, aged 39. The prisoner was remanded for sentence until 10 a.m. today by Mr. Justice Gresson. •. • The evidence for the prosecution closely followed that given at the hwer court hearing on July 8, and' showed that a 10 h.p. 1941 modei car had been stolen from the garage of J. C. Milnes, Ltd,, Oxford Stredfc, Levin, for whom. Dawson had been garage foreman. The car was . used for rental purposes and this year a new engine had been fitted to it. The owner of the garage had failed to change the engine number on the registration papers. Dawson was charged with fche theft of this car, valued at £500, the theft of a vehicle identification light, valued at £3, and with a'ttempting to defraud C. F. Cronin by obtaining from him the sum of £250 by falsely representing that he was the owner of a car.

Dawson was found in possession of a car similar to that which'had been stolen. This vehicle had been roughly painted a different colour. Dawson had obtained an advance of £250 from Cronin, using the car as a security. He had told Cronin he had bought the car from a dealer named H. R. Taylor, of Durham Street, Isla.nd Bay, Wehington, but police inquiries failed to trace either the street or the man. Dawson had re-registered the car, but the engine number he en'tered on the certificate was hot that on the engine. No evidence was called for the defence, but accused's counsel, Mr. A. M. Ongley, conducted seatching cross-examination of the Crown's witnesses in an endeavour to shake the prosecution's evidence of identity of the car. His address to the jury was largely a contention that the Crown had failed to prove that the car in Dawson 's possession was the one stolen from Milnes' garage, but after a retirement of only 18 minutes the jury returned their verdict as stated. Mr. G. I. McGregor was the Crown Prosecutor.