“WENT ON A BURST”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 February 1939, Page 6

“WENT ON A BURST”

MASTERTON MAN SPENDS £75. IN FIVE DAYS. THEFT CHARGE DISMISSED. How a Masterton labourer, Arthur Reginald Boyd, “went on a burst and spent'£7s in five days was described in the Masterton Magistrate’s Court today when Boyd was charged with the theft of that amount from his aged mother, Mary Boyd. It was stated that accused was entitled to a share of the £175 in his mother’s possession and after hearing the evidence the presiding Justices, Messrs E. G. Eton and W. Kemp, dis- < missed the charge. Senior-Sergeant G. A. Doggett conducted the procuration and Mr H. H. Daniell appeared for Boyd. . . F Mr Daniell made an application for “ the suppression of Boyd’s name. The information, he said, was laid as the result of an error by his aged mother . and no good service would be done r by bringing family troubles before ‘ the public. j Mr Eton said that at present the Bench was not prepared to suppress the name. Mrs Boyd, in the witness box, said she was 78 years of age and was in receipt of the old age pension.- Prior to Sunday, February 19. she had £175 in £5 notes in a canvas bag, which she used to keep under her pillow at j night. On the night of February 23 she found that the bag had been interfered with and that a bundle of notes totalling £75 was missing. “It was Archie’s own money,’ she added; “he knew I had it, but I did not want to let him have it in case worse times came along.” When she went to the Police Station she did not know who had taken the money, although she had wrongly accused her daughter. She had saved some of the money and the remainder . had been left to her by her late hus- . band. On the Sunday the money was taken she did not know accused was , in the house. She was in bed all day ' and was only out of the room for five ; or ten minutes. The bag was then lying on the bed. When a police constable was interviewing members of her household last Saturday morning she handed £5O of the remaining money to each of her two sons—accused and Willie. She did that because she did not want to have the lot stolen. At that time she did not know .that Archie had been accused of taking the money. To Mr Daniell, witness said that she had been left about £4OO under her husband’s will. All except Archie and Willie had received a share of the money. The Pensions Department had been very angry with her when they learnt she had given part of the money away. At first she thought her daughter had taken the £JS. Mr Daniell: “If you knew that Archie had taken it you would not have reported it to the police?” Mrs Boyd: “Not unless he would not have given it up to me.” It was his money, she added, but she would not give it to him because she could look after it better than he could. Her daughter had already received her share and she was not going to be paid twice. Constable C. H. Reardon, who arrested accused, said it soon became obvious that the theft had been committed by a member of the household. When he interviewed the family Mrs Boyd produced £lOO and gave £5O to accused and Willie. Up to that stage no mention had been made of the fact that either of the boys was entitled to the money. After further extensive inquiries, witness returned to Boyd’s house and suggested to Mrs Boyd that one of the boys might have been ' guilty. At first she would not agree with that. Accused then came in and although ho at first denied the allegation he later admitted the theft. In the course of a statement subsequently made at the police station accused, after admitting taking a bundle of notes from his mother’s bhg on the Sunday afternoon, said that on the same day he took a taxi ; to Wellington, the trip costing him > £3. A man produced a bottle of whisky and six bottles of beer for him in Wellington. He returned to Masterton by another taxi in the early hours of Monday morning, paying the driver £3 10s. He stayed the night at the Midland Hotel and spent the next day in Carterton “at all the hotels except the Taratahi.” That night he went to Wellington in a Masterton taxi and returned to Car- , terton by train the following morning. He arrived in Masterton by bus ’ about 5 p.m. and then went out into the country in a taxi. From there he took another taxi for Palmerston j North, the fare being £4. He booked in at a Palmerston hotel and hired a taxi for Foxton, paying the driver 1 265. He returned to Palmerston that night by taxi and the following day he again went to Foxton where he spent the day. Taxi fares for the day cost him £5 or £6. He “spent a quiet day” in Palmerston on Thursday and returned to Masterton on Friday afternoon. He drew his war pension, amounting to £4 6s 3d and out of that paid his mother £1 10s for board. He did not have any of the money he had taken left. He - had been, under the impression that - his brother Willie had received his i share of his mother’s money and that “gave me the spike.” He made the s admission to clear his sister of any i. suspicion. a Mr Daniell said it was a most un- » fortunate case. It often happened 1 that when persons advanced in years t Chose who looked after them the most - became the object of their suspicion or distrust. But for the fact that Mrs Boyd at the outset suspected her daughter, who looked after her, the case might never have come before the court. In safeguarding the money Mrs Boyd was trying to save her son from himself. No jury in the world would convict Boyd of stealing his n own money. In giving the decision of the Bench, Mr Eton said: “We have had some e difficulty in arriving at a decision in 1 this unfortunate domestic case. It is 4 a very hard thing for a woman of 78 years to come before Court and accuse her son of theft. We are prepared to dismiss the charge on account of ” the circumstances and in view of the evidence. The police were quite justified in arresting accused and he is very fortunate that we are dismissing O the charge. We have been guided in cur decision by counsel’s statement r that no jury of reasonably minded , men would convict accused and by doing so we are saving the State a lot ’ of money. We hope this will teach accused a lesson.”