CONVERTED CAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 119, 23 May 1938, Page 8

CONVERTED CAR.

TRIP TO GISBORNE. TWO MEN ARRESTED. BOTH SENT TO PRISON. Arrested In Gisborne, where they arrived from Auckland in a motor car which they took from the street, two men, Leslie Joseph Harris (27), a labourer, and Bernard Edward Way (20), motor driver, appeared in the Police Court to-day before Mr. W. E. McKean, S.M., on several charges. Both pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawfully converting to their own use a. motor car valued at £200, the property of Francis Boy Beanland, while _Way was further charged with obtaining £45 from Edward George Wood, at Whangarei, on March 23, by falsely representing that the car was his property and unencumbered. Mr. Wallace appeared for Way and Mr. Aekins for Harris. Detective-Sergeant McHugh said Way bought a motor car in Christohurch last December by paying a deposit' of £5. On February 5 he paid another £20 and took delivery of the car, driving in it to Auckland and later to Whangarei. At Whangarei he offered it for sale for £125, representing that the car was his own property and unencumbered. On March 25 he sold the car for £45, signing a receipt that the vehicle was free of all mortgages and encumbrances. Referring to the joint charge of conversion against both men. DetectiveSergeant McHugh stated that at 7.45 p.m. on April 9 the accused took the car from the street where it was parked and drove it to their boardinghouse, where they changed the registration plates. The original plates were thrown into a lake on the way to Gisborne. Eight days after their arrival in Gisborne both were arrested. Harris was found in possession of Mr. Beanland's driving license. The car was damaged to the extent of £15, while the cost of returning it to Auckland was £5.

Prospect of Reform. "Way has previously been in trouble for car conversion at Wellington in December last,'' added the detectivesergeant. "He is not too fond of work, and has been associating with undesirables. Harris has previously been convicted for assau|t and obscene language. Both are single men." It was admitted by Mr. Wallace that Way had been mixing with the wrong people and that he had got in with a criminal class, but he was only 20, and there was yet a prospect of him reforming himself. Appearing for Harris, Mr. Aekins said the offences seemed to have been the result of over-indulgence in drink. It was a drunken escapade. Both men had been in custody on remand since May 8. "It was more than a drunken escapade," said the magistrate. "These men deliberately took the car and changed the number plates." Both were sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment on the conversion charge. Way was sentenced to one month's imprisonment on the second charge and Harris was fined £1 for stealing a motor driver's license. For stealing the motor plates both men were fined £5, or 14 days in prison.