PETROL SALES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 87, 12 April 1940, Page 9

PETROL SALES.

CURRENCY OF COUPONS.

MAGISTRATE'S DECISION

On each of two charges of breaches of the oil fuel regulations James McCleary (Mr. Grant) was fined £2 10/ in a reserved judgment <riven by Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday. The charges against the defendant, a service station owner, were that he had sold from October 1 to October 31, 2:10 gallons of petrol for which he had accepted coupons issued for September and November, and that from November 1 to November 30 he sold 182. gallons of petrol iu exchange for coupons issued in other months.

Mr. Grant contended that there wm nothing in the regulations which prevented the defendant from accepting coupons later than the specified month. Regulation 37 specified that the coupons were to be used not earlier than the month for which they were issued.

In giving judgment Mr. McKean said he had taken into consideration the fact that much of the petrol had been sold on coupons issued for earlier periods, which Mr. Grant submitted was justified. However, eome of the petrol had been sold in defiance of the regulations. The only thing for the controller to do was to specify on the coupons the limits of the time for which they were available.