LABOURER FINED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 August 1939, Page 4

LABOURER FINED

CHARGE OF DRUNKENNESS & THEFT.

On a charge of drunkenness and theft, John Kerins, aged 46 years, appeared in the Masterton Court today before Messrs A. D. Low and H. E. Pither, J.’sP. On the first charge he was convicted and discharged and on the second he was fined £2.

Senior-Sergeant G. A. Doggett, who represented the police, stated that as the result of a phone call to the station on the afternoon of Saturday, August 19, Constable A. L. Downs arrested Kerins outside the Toute De Suite Lounge. He was in a drunken state and had just left the lounge, where the till had been opened and the sum of 5s 6d removed. Kerins was the only one who had been in the lounge at that time.

“This man is a labourer employed at the Public Works camp at Paraparaumu and he has been convicted twice within the last six months of being drunk.” said the Senior-Sergeant. Mr Low: “You are becoming somewhat of a nuisance Kerins; don’t you know when to stop taking a drink? This theft of money is a serious thing and you are liable to three months for this offence.”

Kerins: “It has never happened before and won’t happen again.” Mr Low: “You had money of your own, and there is no excuse for such an action.”

Kerins: “I don’t know why I did it. If you let me go back to my work I will stay there for ever.” Mr Low: “Have you paid back the money you took?” Kerins: “I can pay it back now and I will do so straight away.”