POLICE COURT

Evening Star, Issue 22459, 2 October 1936, Page 9

POLICE COURT

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2. (Before Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M.) INTOXICATED MOTORIST. Allan John Wilson, who was represented by Mr K. Rutherford, appeared for sentence on a charge of being intoxicated in charge of a motor car. Mr Rutherford said that all the facts had been placed before the court, and the accused had been in custody for about a week. The Magistrate said that it was with some considerable hesitation that he did not in the first case impose a term of imprisonment. The accused had taken his sister and her baby and his mother in the car, but fortunately he was not able to start it when the police came on the scene. His Worship said he would take the accused’s financial circumstances into consideration, and he would be fined £l2 10s and ordered to pay medical expenses (£1 Is) and cab fare (2s 6d). The accused’s license was suspended, and he was prohibited from driving for two years. LICENSE SUSPENDED. John Ewart, who was represented by Mr J. G. Warrington, pleaded guilty to charges of driving without a license and of negligent driving, it being stated that defendant collided with a cyclist on Anderson’s Bay road. It was later found that he did not possess a license. On the negligent driving charge defendant was fined £3 and costs (10s), his license was suspended, and he was prohibited from driving for three months. On the other charge he was convicted and discharged. MOTORING CASES. Charged with being an unlicensed motor driver, Donald Cobden was fined 20s and costs. For driving an unlighted motor car David Cunningham was fined os and John Thomas Neill pleaded guilty to a charge of driving a motor car without a license, the Magistrate stating that defendant was prohibited from driving for a period of two years from July 3, and such an order was not a matter of form, but must be obeyed. Defendant was fined £lO and costs. Eric Duncan Sarginson admitted passing another motor car at the intersection of Rattray and Crawford streets, and was fined 10s and costs As tne sequel to an accident in which a woman was injured while stepping off a St. Clair-bound tramcar at the intersection of Grosvenor street and Cargill road, charges were preferred against the driver of a motor car, Joseph Addison Young Todd (Mr \V. D. Taylor) of negligent driving and passing a stationary tramcar. The case was proceeding when the luncheon adjournment was taken. *■

DRINKING WHILE PROHIBITED. An excuse that defendant brewed his own beer, and therefore did not procure it, was advanced by Mr G. T. Baylee, when William Hill Stewart was charged with procuring liquor while prohibited. Sergeant O’Shea said that on August 19 Stewart was arrested for being allegedly drunk in charge of a motor van. He was examined at the Police Station, and, though Dr Moody, who examined him, was of the opinion that he had been drinking, he was not prepared to say he was intoxicated. “ This was a border-line case,” said Sergeant O’Shea. Later the same evening Stewart was arrested in Maclaggan street by Constable Berry. The con,stable gave evidence, and said Stewart was under the influence of liquor, although, in his opinion, he was not actually drunk. The Magistrate said, after hearing legal argument by Mr Baylee, that the section of the Act dealing with prohibited persons was rather vague. His Worship adjourned the case for a wefek to inquire further into the question raised by counsel. £lO FINE. “It is suggested that the defendant was wearing glasses and a slouch hat as a means of disguise. He is apparently not in the habit of wearing glasses,” said Sergeant O’Shea of Ivor Robert Prescott (Mr G. V Murdoch), who admitted two charges of being an unlicensed motor driver. Prescott denied disguising himself, his explanation for wearing glasses being that he wore them at night to avoid the glare of street lights, Prescott, who committed the offences while prohibited from driving, was fined £lO and costs (10s) on the first charge, and ordered to come up for sentence any time within 12 months if called upon on the other charge. UNLICENSED WIRELESS SETS. Cecil Hubert Tooley. for being in possession of an unlicensed wireless set, was fined Is 2d (one-third of the half-yearly license fee) and costs (11s). CHIMNEY FIRES. “It was purely an accident. A member of the family put a piece of celluloid in the fire, and it flew up and set the chimney on fire,” said William Wilson, who was charged with allowing a chimney to catch fire. Defendant said he became alarmed and rang the South Dunedin Fire Station. Defendant was fined 5s and costs, and on a similar charge Thomas Gibson Waters was lined a like amount.