FINED FOR BEING ON WHARF

Southland Times, Issue 24822, 14 August 1942, Page 5

FINED FOR BEING ON WHARF

MAN WITH OFFICER’S CAP

(PA..) AUCKLAND, August 13. A man who, the police alleged, entered Princes wharf on Monday wearing an Army officer’s cap and a military style overcoat over his civilian clothes appeared before Mr F. H. Levien, S.M., on charges under the Shipping Safety Emergency Regulations of having deceived a constable and having gained access to a wharf without a permit. He was Paul Desire Nestor Verschaffelt, aged 55, a retired civil servant. Verschaffelt pleaded not guilty to the first charge and guilty to the second. A constable said he was on duty at Princes wharf gates when he saw the defendant and an Army officer enter the wharf. The officer was not sober.. Officers did not need passes and he thought Verschaffelt, who was wearing a forage cap, was an officer, as there were a number entering at the time. When Verschaffelt got further down the wharf, however, the witness noticed his dark trousers and arrested him. Verschaffelt then took off the forage cap. The Army officer was drunk and . a perfect nuisance, said Verschaffelt in evidence. As the officer had a roll of notes the defendant thought he might get into trouble and that the correct thing would be to assist him to his ship. Vershaffelt admitted he had entered the wharf without a permit, but denied he had deceived a constable. He had worn the forage cap earlier in the afternoon as a joke and the officer had later insisted on his wearing it. He had then worn it to htimour the man and they had walked arm-in-arm on to the wharf. , Saying he must give the defendant the benefit of the doubt on the first charge, the Magistrate dismissed it and fined him £lO on the second charge.