INSPECTOR DECEIVED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 841, 9 December 1929, Page 11

INSPECTOR DECEIVED

CHEMIST TAKES CHARGE OF SPEEDSTER’S CAR FINE OF £5 IMPOSED For answering questions by Traffic-Inspector Barrett, of the Main Highways Board in a manner intended to deceive. Hubert Fallwen. chemist, of Otahuhu. was fined £5 and ordered to pay costs by Mr. F. H. Levien, S.M., at the Otahuhu Court this morning. INSPECTOR BARRETT said it was * rather an unusual case. He had j seen a car travelling through Manurewa earlier in the day, and later' found it empty outside an hotel in i Otahuhu. Fallwell came along and j claimed the car as his. and when told ] he had been in a violent hurry coming through Papakura. he said he had not been out of Otahuhu, and to further questions said he never lent the car to anyone. On making further inquiries the inspector found that Fallwell did not own the car. and if he had not interfered the occupants would have been arrested for being in charge of the car while intoxicated. Constable Nield, of Otahuhu. gave corroborative evidence and stated that as the result of Fallwell’s answers, he came to the conclusion the inspector had made a mistake. In evidence defendant said that two men came into his shop, one of whom was drunk and the other was capable of looking after him. He gave them a draught to sober them up, and advised them to go home. He offered to get the car. and when about to drive off. the inspector asked to see his licence, as the car had been seen travelling through Papakura at 42 miles and hour. He told the inspector and tlie constable that he thought the car had come from Auckland, and it belonged to an acquaintance. In inflicting the fine, the magistrate said the whole of the evidence pointed to how a man found himself suspected. People came into his shop to be put straight, and he got in the car without a licence and drove it to the shop, performing a service unheard of by a chemist.