Warned by Constables But Drove Motor-cycle

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 39, 16 February 1937, Page 2

Warned by Constables But Drove Motor-cycle

YOUNG MAN FINED (Special to "Times”) N.?I"ER, Feb. 15. After lie iiuu .. two constables that he was not iu a fit condition to drive tho motor-cycle beside which ho was standing, John Henry Gordon, of Napier, freezing-works employee, waited until they hud gone and then wheeled tho cycle ou to the Alarino Parade, Napier, preparatory to riding it away. When charged before Air J. Miller, S.M., in the Napier Al agist rate's Court this morning with being intoxicated in chargo ot a motor vehicle hu was fined £lO with £1 costs, his licence was suspended, and he was disqualified Irom holding another licence for six months. The Bench warned him that had ho actually driven tho cycle he would have been sent to gaol. Sonicr-Sergeant W. Pender said that Constables S. Lush and S. Tucker saw tho defendant iu Albion street, outsido the Albion Hotel, standing besido a motor-cycle. He was almost drunk enough to be charged with drunkenness, apart from intoxication in charge, and they warned him not to drive the cycle. He consented to put it in the yard of tho hotel, but when the constables returned in half an hour they saw the defendant wheeling the cycle along Albion street to the Alarino Parade. They followed him and saw him making adjustments preparatory to riding, and he was arrested. A doctor certified that ho wan not in a fit condition to drive. Defendant, who was represented by counsel, pleaded guilty, stating that ho had met a friend whoee birthday it was, and had taken too much to drink. "Had you mounted the bicycle, 1 should have had no compunction in sending you to prison," -said the Afngistrate. "You were given the opportunity to put the cycle away and leave it there, but you did not take advantage of it. I have the public to think of, and, although you use the cycle to go to work, you will have to do without it for six months."

HAD BEEN ABSTAINER FINED £ls; LICENSE CANCELLED (Special to "Tipies”) NAPIER, Feb. 35. " Until a few days before his arrest he was a total abstainer," said Mr H. Le Pino in defending Frank Travorrow on a charge of being intoxicated in charge of a motor vehicle when he appeared boforo Mr J. Miller, S.M., in tho Napier Magistrate’s Court this morning. Mr Le Pine added that the defendant was still in hospital, had been worried about his ill-health and that, because ho was unused to liquor, it had had more effect upoa him than, it ordinarily would have It was explained to the Court by Senior-Sergeant W. Pender that the police had received a message to say that a car was on tho Napier-Taupe road at Eskdale with tho engine running and a man asleep in it. Detective K. W. Mills and Constable D. Walden visited the scene, and found defendant alseep, with a half flask of whisky, almost empty, besido him. lie was taken to the police station and locked up, but became ill. A doctor ordered his removal to the Napier Public Hospital, and according to advice from the institution this morning it would be two or three weeks before ho was in n fit condition to lie discharged. Air Miller remarked that It was fortunate that in this case the accused bad not driven the car while iu such n condition, as in Iris drunken state anything might have happened. He imposed u fine of £ls, and cancelled defendant’s driving licence for 12 months.