CONVERSION OF MOTOR-BUS

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 192, 10 May 1940, Page 3

CONVERSION OF MOTOR-BUS

Two Men Sent To Jail

COLLISION WITH TRAM IN KARORI Sentences of two months' imprisonment were imposed on Alfred Janies Shewan, Lus driver, aged 32, and Janies Sherwood Manchester, motordriver and farmer, aged 38, when they appeared before Mr. Stilwell, S.M., in the Magistrates’ Court, Wellington, yesterday, charged with unlawfully converting a motor-bus valued at £OOO, the property of llongotai Buses 1939-40, Dtd. Shewan and Manchester were arrested at Karori on Monday night after a collision with a tram. Both men were also charged with being intoxicated in charge of the bus. Shewan, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to seven days’ imprisonment, to be served concurrently with his other term. In the case of Manchester, the charge was dismissed. The magistrate made an order that the driving licences of both men were to be cancelled, and that they were to be prohibited from obtaining new licences for 12 months. Sub-Inspector L. It. Capp prosecuted, and Mr. F. W. Ongley appeared for Shewan and Manchester. In a statement submitted to the Court by the police Howard Moncrieff Bagnall, general manager of Rongotai Buses, 1939-40, Ltd., said that nobody had permission to remove the bus from where it had been parked at the Wellington City Council’s depot. Clyde Quay. Sidney Lineker, tramway motorman eaid that at 5.50 p.m. on May 0 he was driving a tram from Karori to the city. When half way across the intersection of Lancaster Street and Karori Hoad a ■bus passed him travelling at high speed He had to stop the tram to avoid a collision. The bus went 150 yards further then collided with a south-bound tram. Robert James Hazelwood, the conductor of Lineker’s tram, said that during the afternoon he had seen the bus outside the Western Park Hotel, Tinakori Road. When the bus passed'them at the intersection of Lancaster Street and Karori Road Manchester was driving. Head-On Collision. Andrew Hamilton, the driver of the tram involved in the collision, said lie saw the bus coming straight toward him and immediately halted the tram. A headon collision occurred, however. Constable S. J. Frost, of the Karori Police Station, said that when he arrived at the scene of the accident he found Shewan in an advanced state of intoxication. Manchester was also under the influence of liquor but was not so bad Both denied that they had been driving the vehicle and said that there had been a third man who had gone. Dr. W. F. Shirer. said he examined Shewan and Manchester at the Central Police Station at 7.20 p.m. Shewan was unfit to be in charge of a motor-vehicle, but Manchester had recovered sufficiently to be capable of driving. . Manchester, giving evidence, said that at no stage had he driven the bus. He met Shewan about 3 p.m. and about o p.m. went for a drive with him. He admitted that they stopped at the Western Park Hotel. . , Shewan said that he was employed by Rongotai Buses, 1939-40, Ltd., and during the day had been engaged in making adjustments to the carburettor. He took the bits to try it out. lu imposing the sentences the magistrate said that he did not believe the excuse given by Shewan for taking the vehicle. It was obvious that both men had been engaged in a round of hotels and that both had been implicated in the act of conversion. Shewan had driven the vehicle after the accident.