POLICE COURT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 268, 11 November 1910, Page 5

POLICE COURT.

(Before Mr. E. C. Cut-ten, S.M.). [ THE DRUNKARDS. William Gray, pleaded guilty to another charge, the fifth within six months, and also to breach of his prohibition order, and was fined £5, in default 14 days. ! Edward Russell, for breach of his order, ' was fined £3 or 14 days, and a Maori named Pou Haeata £1, costs 17/6. William Richard Leary, drunkenness and ■ breach of order, was fined £2 or 7 days. Samuel Rait Hugh Strain, drunk, forfeited £1 bail, and a first offender was fined . 5/. NO USE. A shaky old man named Edward Nolan was charged that he was an incorrigible rogue in that he solicited alms in a public place. He pleaded guilty. The case was an ordinary one; except that two of the men whom he accosted were police, men in plain clothes. When he was searched, the sum of Nolan's wealth -was half a bottle of beer. The Magistrate said that apparently Nolan was no use to himself or to the community. Prisoner was sent to gaol for 12 months. A NIGHT PROWLER. A middle-aged man named "Vernon : Green, paralysed and crippled, pleaded guilty to a charge that he was found by night without lawful excuse on the premises of Alexander Harvey and Sons in Albert-street. A noise of breaking glass was heard shortly after midnight near the premises mentioned and a search dis-. ' covered the accused apparently hiding. He had a bad record, and.in view of the time at which he was found, and of his behaviour while there, the Magistrate could not overlook the offence. Green was sentenced to three months' imprisonment. INDECENCY. Alfred Lardher and Mary GaTke, charged with having behaved indecently in Chapel Square were each sentenced to seven days' imprisonment. Lardner pleaded guilty, but Clarke told a story, which the Magistrate did not believe in' which'she attributed all the blame to Lardner. "KINGING THE CHANGES." A young man named Robert Neil was charged on five- informations with having stolen, sums of 9/6 from various shopkeepers. The thefts were committed by the well-known trick of "ringing the changes" usually practised on inexperienced shop assistants. The accused went to several shops where women or inexperienced young people . were employed, and by skilful manipulation of a halfsovereign and other coins he contrived to confuse them to such an extent that they gave him in every case the change of half a sovereign, 9/6, too-much..- Mr. J. R. Reed appeared for the accused, who pleaded "guilty." Neil was .'sentenced to two months' imprisonment. MISCELLANEOUS. John Cleater, charged with' deserting from the s.s. Ruahine, was remanded until Monday. > Harold John -Hewlet was fined 5/, costs 7/, for" having allowed a horse to wander. .. Martin Roberts was fined £2, costs 15/, for having left his horse and cart untended in Newmarket. The horse, yoked to the cart, was found wandering at large at 5 o'clock in the morning. COMMITTED FOR TRIAL. Marcus Barak, a man who was arrested a week ago on the arrival of the steamer from Fiji, was charged that in July, 1909, at Papakura, he obtained 15/ by false pretences, that he stole a rolledIgold watch valued£4, and that he stole a gold brooch, a gold ring, and 7/6 in money. Accused was a jeweller in., a' small way at Clevedon, and on certain days he did work in a room at Papakura, and it was alleged that before leaving he failed to return certain articles entrusted to him to their rightful owners, and that he practised upon them other petty frauds. He pleaded "Not guilty," and was committed for trial.