MAGISTRATES COURT

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23002, 23 April 1940, Page 3

MAGISTRATES COURT

MONDAY (Before Mr H. A. Young, S.M.) DRUNKENNESS Andrew Smith, who appeared" in Army uniform, pleaded guilty to a charge of drunkenness, and to a further charge of wilfully damaging a canvas window-cover outside .a shop in Manchester street. On the first charge he was ordered to pay the taxi fare, in default 24 hours’ imprisonment. On the second charge he was ordered to make good the damage!, which was estimated at ss. Smith told the Court that he was leaving in the 2nd Echelon and that he was finding his way to the station to catch the Burnham train, when a constable detained him. UNLAWFULLY ON PREMISES James Jones (Mr R. Twyneham) pleaded guilty to a charge of being a rogue and a vagabond in that he was found by night without lawful excuse in an enclosed yard. Counsel said that on Saturday Jones had been drinking and it was the effect of the drink that led him to enter the premises concerned for a few minutes. There was no criminal intent whatever. Jones was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence if called on within 12 months, with a condition that he paid Court costs and took out a prohibition order. An application for suppression of the name was refused. REMANDED Cornelius James Thomas O’Hehir was remanded until May 2 on a charge of breaking and entering the premises of Leslie James Lewis, in Madras street, and committing theft there. NAMES SUPPRESSED Two youths whose names were suppressed pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing four dozen oysters, valued at 4s. They were convicted and discharged. One of them was convicted and discharged on payment of costs, on a charge of damaging a cell door. As first offenders for drunkenness they were each ordered to pay costs. A third youth who entered the dock with them was ordered to pay costs on a charge of drunkenness. THEFT OF WOOL William Henry Hudson pleaded guilty to three charges of stealing wool at Mayfield in July and August. 1936, valued in all at £4 14s 3d, the property of George Hamilton Lamb. He also pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to account for £1 4s to William James McDonald, on June 24, 1933. Detective-Sergeant Sinclair said that Hudson failed to account to McDonald for money he received from the sale of some scrap iron. He disappeared. That was in 1933. In 1936 he was working for Lamb and sold some of his employer’s wool to certain woolbuyers. Later he disappeared and inquiries were made all over New Zealand for his whereabouts. He was located recently. He was working now as a labourer at Marshland. Hudson was placed on probation for two years and ordered to refund the £5 18s .3d involved. FORGERY ADMITTED Reginald Albert Henry Strudwick (Mr R. A. Young) pleaded guilty to a charge of forging a Post Office Savings Banv withdrawal slip, purporting it to have been signed by R. A. Alston and intending it to be acted upon as genuine. The amount involved in the withdrawal slip was £5. Strudwick also pleaded guilty to a charge of forging a withdrawal slip to obtain £3 from the account of Sherard Toon. Evidence was given that Strudwick obtained the money from the Savings Bank with the forged slips. He was a parachute packer at Wigram. The accounts at which he operated belonged to two other men at Wigram. Strudwick was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. Bail of £IOO with one surety of £IOO was aliowed. CHARGEg DISM i S SED (Before Mr F. F. Reid, S.M.) James Clark was charged with damaging crockery valued at 15s, the property of Cyril Dawson, thereby committing mischief, and with damaging a gas oven, the property of Dawson, to the extent of £l. The charges were dismissed on payment of the amount of the damage. The defendant, a soldier at Burnham, had visited a pie-stall near the station and there the incidents out of which the charge rose had occurred. MAINTENANCE COURT (Before Mr F. F. Reid, S.M.) Margaret Ellen Evans, for disobedience of a maintenance order, was j convicted and sentenced to 14 days imprisonment, the warrant to be suspended as long as she pays Is a week in addition to the amount of the current order.