STORY TO MOTORIST

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 815, 8 November 1929, Page 1

STORY TO MOTORIST

OBTAINING PERMISSION TO TAKE CAR UNLAWFUL CONVERSION

The question of whether a youn & man, having obtained permission from the owner by trickery to borrow his car, was guilty of unlawful conversion decided in the affirmative by Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., at the Police Court morning. Frank Melwyn Fenton, aged 19, was charged w r ith converting a car valued at £6O, belonging to Gordon Roy Cornes, on September 14, and with converting a truck valued at £IOO, the property of Carter Bros., on the same date. There was a third charge of driving without a licence. No plea was entered and SubInspector McCarthy said Fenton had told the owner of the car that he wanted to borrow it to demonstrate it to a possible purchaser. He had used the car over the week-end and it had broken down in Karangahape Road. He had then gone to a garage, of which he had the key, and brought out the breakdown van to tow in the other car. That constituted the second offence.

“He deliberately lied to get the car,” commented the magistrate. “I agree that it is not the usual case of conversion or I should have no hesitation in sending this young, man up for a term of imprisonment.” Fenton was admitted to probation for 12 months and ordered to make restitution. On the second charge of conversion he was convicted and discharged, and on the third charge he was fined £1 and costs.