CONVICTED & FINED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 September 1941, Page 4

CONVICTED & FINED

MASTERTON TAXI-DRIVER. INTOXICATED WHILE IN CHARGE OF CAR. Charged with having been intoxicated while in charge of a motor vehicle in Lincoln Road, Masterton, last night, Ronald Ward Clarke, aged 25 vears, taxi driver, was fined £25 and had his driver’s licence cancelled for 12 months when he appeared before Messrs A. D. Low and L. J. Taylor, J.sP., in the Magistrate’s Court this morning. Mr R. R. Burridge, who appeared for the defendant, entered a plea of guilty. Senior-Sergeant G. A. Doggett stated that Clarke was arrested by Constable R. J. Berry, in Lincoln Road at 9 o’clock last night, following on complaints which had been received from the occupier of a boarding house m Lincoln Road that Clarke had brought two of the boarders home in a state of intoxication. Clarke held a public vehicle licence and had been warned on several occasions. Since he had last been warned he had been found drinking beer in the back room of a boarding house at three o’clock in the morning. Dr. N. H. Prior had examined him and declared him unfit to drive a car. Clarke had been told he could obtain further medical examination if he wished to, and as a result he had also been examined by Dr. J. C Forsyth, who also certified him unfit to drive. Mr Burridge said that Clarke was not in the course of his duties when the offence had been committed. He did not have any paid fares in the car. It was unfortunate, he added, that of all the cases in Masterton which prevailed, in which prominent people . were involved, Clarke should have J. been found out, where many were noh.tj His client was unfit for service anu could not do any heavy work. It was his first offence and Mr Burridge suggested that if a substantial fine were imposed and Clarke took out a prohibition order, there were sufficient grounds for the Bench to exercise the discretionary powers set out in the amendment to the Act. Mr Low: “I do not see how his livelihood affects the position.” In imposing the penalty stated, Mr Low said that Mr Burridge knew the seriousness of the offence as much as anyone and doubtless he could explain that fact to his client, as the Bench did not propose to reiterate what was quite apparent to all.