FINED FOR THEFT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 121, 24 May 1941, Page 6

FINED FOR THEFT

Pleading guilty to two charges of theft of clocks from the New Zealand Government Railways, Marmaduke Maxwell Shirley Warner appeared before Mr. A. M. Goulding, S.M., in the Lower Hutt Court on Thursday. Mr. E. W. R. Haldane appeared for the defendant.

Detective-Sergeant H. C. Murch stated that the accused, a bus driver employed by the Railway Department, had been admitted to probation for two years in the Supreme Court on Wednesday for theft of a purse and money, and the clocks were stolen from the panels of railway buses while he was on bail before that hearing. His explanation was that he committed the thefts under the influence of liquor. Mr. Haldane, for the defence, said the defendant, had been drinking on account of anxiety over the Supreme Court case.

Warner was fined £5 on one charge and on the other was convicted and discharged.

Robert Freebairn pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing a circular saw and a second charge of stealing blankets, pliers, a torch, a file, 16 gallons of petrol, and two drums, from a bach at Wainui-o-mata. The defendant was employed by Mr. G. P. Costigan at the time, said Detective-Sergeant H. C. Murch. and there had been a disputed tenancy, the defendant refusing to leave one of Mr. Costigairs sheds in which he and his family had been living. Fines of £5 in each case were imposed.