A BRIEF JOY RIDE.

Wairarapa Age, 26 February 1927, Page 5

A BRIEF JOY RIDE.

YOUNG REVELLERS REMOVE CAR. EACH FINED £lO. The appropriation of a car which belonged to George H. Eaton was responsible for the appearance before Mr. F. K. Hunt S.M., yesterday of Archibald L. Curry and Frederick P, Longbottom, who were charged with unlawfully converting the car to their own use. Both defendants admitted the charge.

The facts as outlined by the police were that Currie and Longbottom had left a party at Lansdowne on the night of February 24 and had removed Eaton’s car which was standing, with the engine locked, outside a neighbouring house. Between 10.30 and 11 p.m. Eaton on leaving the house observed that his car was missing and discovered it further down the road. Longbottom was sitting in it, but Curry ran away and was not apprehended until next morning. Both men had been at a party and had taken drink. Replying to His Worship, Sergeant Duke said Longbottom was a worker at Waingawa, and Curry was a clerk there. Both young men were respectable.

Longbottom, in a statement, said he saw the car and just hopped into it, and asked Curry to get in. He could mot drive a car. He had just got into the ear and taken off the brake and it ran down the hill.

Curry said he thought the car belonged to one of the party that he was with and that Longbottom had the right to use it. The car was in front of the house where the party was. Ho had no intention of taking the car, and thought Longbottom had permission to use it. Otherwise he would not have got into it. The Magistrate said he would not send the men to prison this time, although it was a serious matter. Each man would be lined £lO, in default one month’s imprisonment. A sum of £1 was to be paid for the recharging of the battery. Curry’s application to have his name suppressed was refused.