YOUNG MAN’S LAPSE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2664, 27 November 1923, Page 2

YOUNG MAN’S LAPSE.

DRINK AND A DANCE. At the Palmerston North S.M. Court yesterday, before Mr J. L. Stout, S.M., John Robert Perreau was charged with the theft at Palmerston North on November 24th., 1023, of an overcoat valued at 25/tlie property of Stanley Stewart Kelly, and also a hat the property of some person unknown. The accused pleaded guilty to both counts. Senior Sergeant Fraser stated that the brief facts of the ease were that the accused, with a party of other young men, motored through from Foxton for the dance, and when they left at midnight, the accused took the hat and coat with him. Mr Kelly had reported the disappearance of his coat and, the police on looking round the town, found the accused at the Clarendon Hotel and he then hud the coat and hat in his possession. The young man had not been in New Zealand long, having come from Queensland, but his people were very respectable, There was a lot of stealing of hats and coats going on at the dances, and the police found it difficult to trace these thefts. The accused, in explaining the' reason for his lapse, said that he had had a good deal of liquor during the day and having no coat of his own, he took one belonging to a friend of his so that he might carry a few bottles of beer with him to the dance. The liquor was eoxisumed by himself and some friends and he did not remember leaving the hall. He had taken the coat and hat by mistake, but lie had remained in the hall for fully half an hour with them on. His Worship said the accused would have to be convicted aud fined £2 oh each charge, for getting into such a state that he removed other people’s property. Costs amounted to 10/-.