MIXING THE PETROL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 305, 16 March 1928, Page 7

MIXING THE PETROL

FINED FOR FAKING “SHELL” A case of faked petrol was heard at Surrey Quarter Sessions at Kingston-on-Thames. when Messrs. F. \V. Deats and Co., Ltd., of Burgh Heath, were charged with applying a false trade description to certain petrol. Mr. G. D. Roberts, prosecuting, said Messrs. Deats had a garage with four petrol pumps at Brighton Road, Burgh Heath. Mrs. Stanley,. who kept a tea - house on the other side of the road, looked out of her window at 5.30 a.m. and saw Mr. Beats’s father-in-law standing at a pump marked "Power.” Mr. Deats, director of Deats and Company, Ltd., was standing at a Shell tank. A tube went from the Power pump to the Shell tank and petrol was being pumped from the Power tank to the Shell tank. A chauffeur, whose wife lodged with Mrs. Stanley, saw this same operation going on on another occasion. A representative of the Shell-Mex Co. bought two gallons of petrol from this pump and sealed the can in which it was placed. It was later analysed. Mrs. Edith Gertrude Stanley gave evidence in support of Mr. Roberts’s opening statement, and, cross-exam-ined by Mr. A. B. Lucy, for the defence, said there had been "unpleasantness” because Mr. Deats stopped cars with customers for her tea-house. Mr. J. W. Pleeth, analyst to the Shell-Mex Company, said the petrol he analysed was a mixture of Shell and a “cracked” spirit of an inferior graae. It contained only 40 per cent, of Shell spirit. . Mr. F. W. Deats. in evidence for the defence, denied that he pumped Power petrol into the Shell tank. Mrs. Stanley had made a mistake. The pipe from the Power pump would not reach to the Shell tank. The jury returned a verdict 01 guilty, and a fine of £2O was imposed. Messrs. Deats were also oraered to pay £2O toward the costs of the prosecution.