MAD ON CARS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 839, 6 December 1929, Page 11

MAD ON CARS

THREE YOUNG LARRIKINS THREE YEARS’ PROBATION

Said by Chief-Detective Hammond.to be “car mad,” three young men appeared at the Police Court this morning and were admitted to strict probation on a charge of converting a motor-cycle to their own use. J AWRENCE STUART McKENZIE, John Bertram Hoggart and Sydney Raymond August were charged with converting to their own use, on November 12. a motor-cycle valued at £4O belonging to Douglas Owen Skinner. They pleaded guilty. The chief-detective said the trio had just enough money to hire a car in town for the evening. They were at Onehunga, but had no extra money for their tram fares to town. The motorcycle nas left outside a house, and all three went into town on it. There they obtained a car and went back to Onehunga. one of them riding the motor-cycle. On arrival at Onehunga the boy riding the motor-cycle left the machine within a quarter of a mile of where it had been take--* from. He had been seen entering the car, and that was how the three hau traced. Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M.: I could separate them by sending them to different gaols. The cliief-detectiv.e added that the three young men were from Mangere or Onehunga. They all had previous convictions. McKenzie had been fined £5 for breaking a fire alarm and had been convicted for a breach of tho Defence Act. August had been on probation for theft, and Hoggard had been fined for driving without a licence. “Here are three young larrikins.” said the magistrate to Mr. W. J. Campbell, probation officer. “Can you give them sucli strict terms of probation that they will know they are on probation?” Mr. Campbell said that McKenzie was the cause of the trouble. He recommended a term of three years' probation. “Keep the terms strict and make them give you an account of their expenditure,” advised the magistrate. Then, to the three accused: “You behave yourselves or you will find yourselves in tire Borstal.”