DRUNK IN CHARGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 May 1939, Page 6

DRUNK IN CHARGE

MASTE&TON CAR SALESMAN FINED. SEQUEL TO TELEPHONE CALL. When an unknown person saw Jack Harris, a motor-car salesman drive, oft in his car after being asleep over the wheel in Queen Street last night, a telephone call was made to the Police Station. Harris was subsequently arrested by Constable Bach and in the Magistrate’s Court this morning he pleaded guilty to being intoxicated while in charge of a motor-car. Messrs S. L. F. Free and L. J. Taylor, J.’sP., were on the Bench. Harris, who was represented by ’Mr C. C. Marsack, was convicted and fined £2O and £1 Is medical expenses. Senior-Sergeant G. A. Doggett, who conducted the prosecution, said that Harris was definitely under the inflv? ence of liquor when arrested. Two doctors had later certified him, as being unfit to drive a motor-car. Harris had never been in trouble before. Mr Marsack pointed out that Harris had not been concerned in any accident, and had not been in any sense a menace to other road users. Defendant was a hard-working and reliable man with a good position with Messrs Wright Stephenson and Co., Ltd. He had never been before the Court before, and had an absolutely unblemished record. Last nignt he took several rums in an effort to cure a cold and that accounted for his condition. He was not in the habit of going about drinking. If his licence was cancelled he would lose his position, and would be unable to support his wife and young child. Mr P. G. Ramsay, manager of Wright, Stephenson and Co., Ltd., said that during the whole of fdhe period Harris had been employed by his firm he bad never known him: to have a drink of any kind. Harris’s immediate superior in Wellington told witness that morning that Harris was one of the best men they had in New Zealand. He was hard-working, and very well thought of. Senior-Sergeant Doggett said that even if Harris did not have an accident, he was a potential danger to ; other road users.

Mr Free: “It might have been more by good luck than good management that he did not have an accident.” After Mr Free had referred to the seriousness of the charge and to the fact that it was Harris’s first appearance in Court, Harris was fined as stated above.