UNSAFE TO CONVICT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 23, 28 January 1937, Page 9

UNSAFE TO CONVICT.

INTOXICATION CHARGE.

MOTORIST IN HOTEL BAR

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) HASTINGS, Wednesday.

Contending that a man i;i an intoxicated condition inside a • hotel was in charge of a motor car' parked in the vicinity of the building, the police proceeded against John Donovan Williams, aged 33', in the Hastings Magistrate's Court to-day on a charge of being found intoxicated in charge 6f a car yesterday. The magistrate, Mr. J. Miller, dismissed the case, being of the opinion that the Act had been misinterpreted.

Senior Sergeant Sivyer, who prosecuted, alleged that defendant wae in the hotel in intoxicated state and argued that while in there he could be regarded ae in charge of the car. Mr. Miller would not accept this view, saying he could not convict a man for intention. There was no evert act disclosed.

While the car was in the street, said Mr. Miller, there'was no danger to anyone, and no attempt had been made to drive away. If a man were found on ,the road near a* car there could be sufficient inference'. that he intended to drive it, but not in a case where a man was inside a hotel. " e The magistrate, after hearing both sides, enid he thought it would be unsafe to convict in the ca«e, and the action was dismissed.