MAGISTRATE’S COURT

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23800, 20 November 1942, Page 7

MAGISTRATE’S COURT

THURSDAY (Before Mr F. F. Reid, S.M.) THEFT OF ARMY PETROL "As far as I am concerned this Is the last day on which offenders convicted of the theft of Army petrol will be fined anything less than £5,” said the Magistrate, when three soldiers were charged with the theft of Army petrol. "If that doesn’t stop it I will hand out straight-out imprisonment.” John Martin Anderson, aged 19, who pleaded guilty to stealing four gallons of petrol valued at 11s 2d, on October 18, was convicted and fined £2 and ordered to pay costs, arid also to make restitution of 11s 2d. Senior-Detective H. Nuttall said that accused was on leave in the city and took his father's car back to camp on the next day. He took four gallons of petrol from an Army lorry and put it in a tin which he took home and buried in the garden. When Mr G. T. Weston asked for the suppression of accused’s name, the Magistrate said that only in very exceptional circumstances would he make an order prohibiting the publication of the name of a man who was found stealing Army petrol. It was a serious offence, not because of the value of the petrol, but because it was stolen from a mobile vehicle used for Army purposes. Two other soldiers, Keith Bearman, aged 19, and Colin Russell Clements, aged 20, who admitted stealing four gallons of petrol valued at 11s 2d, were each fined £2 and ordered to pay costs. Senior-Detective Nuttall said that on tiie night of November 4 the accused were seen by the pickets near the line of parked trucks. Later it was found that two two-gallon tins of petrol had been taken. The petrol was found In a fivegallon drum which had been placed in some bushes. When interviewed, the accused were perfectly frank. There had been a number of prosecutions in the last lew weeks for the theft of petrol from the accuseds' camp. “One feature of the type of theft which you ought to know,” said the Magistrate to the accused, “is that this petrol is on charge to the driver of the truck. The first thing that happens is that suspicion is thrown on him. This falls in about the same class as theft from a fellow workman. You put somebody else in the cart for your own selfish purposes,” THREE MONTHS’ IMPRISONMENT “From his record it can be seen that he is a noted false pretences artist—that is his long suit.” This comment was made by Senior-Detective Nuttall when Thomas Davie, a shop assistant, aged 47, pleaded guilty to attempting to obtain £3O 13s from Charles Pateman by representing that he .could supply sheets and blankets to that value. Mr Nuttall said that accused went to the complainant, who was a hotelkeeper at Blenheim, and told him he could supply sheets and blankets as he had a stock of them. Complainant sent a money order for the amount to Christchurch, but before the accused could collect it he was arrested and sentenced to six months’ Imprisonment on a similar charge. He had no intention of supplying the goods for he did not have them to supply. Accused was convicted and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment with hard labour, the sentence to be cumulative with his’present sentence. PLEA OF GUILTY On a charge of obscene exposure to which he pleaded guilty, Henry Kerr, a labourer, aged 25, was convicted and sentenced to 12 months’ Imprisonment with hard labour. He was also convicted and sentenced to six months' imprisonment with hard labour for the theft of a gold watch valued at £2l, the property of Victor George Ellena, for which he had been ordered to come up for sentence if called upon. The second sentence is to be cumulative. Senior-Detective Nuttall said accused had posed as an M.E.D. inspector and entered a house where he committed tire offence. LICENSING BREACHES For supplying liquor after hours, Arthur Wakelin was fined £lO and ordered to pay costs. Henry George Coburn was fined £2 and ordered to pay costs for consuming liquor on licensed premises after hours. For being on licensed premises after hours. Richard Low was fined 20s and ordered to pay costs. LIGHTS IN BLACK-OUT For displaying lights in a black-out, Alexander Grubb. Geoffrey Ernest Fitzharding Kingscote, Florence Wilson, and John Haggas Yarr were each fined 20s and ordered to pay costs. Emmeline Mary Rhodes was ordered to pay costs only. CONVERSION OF BICYCLE A cook, Andrew James Ralph Clark (Mr H. A. Young), was fined 20s and ordered to pay costs, for the unlawful conversion of a bicycle valued at £lO 10s, the property of Keith Henry Robinson. Senior-Sergeant J. Bickerdike said that Clark was a cook in a Public Works Department camp. The complainant left his bicycle at the camp and returned to find it missing. Accused was found in possession of the bicycle and said he had borrowed it to get some groceries. FINE IMPOSED For casting offensive matter in Oxford terrace on October 28, William James Byrne, a labourer, was fined 20s and ordered to pay costs.