MAGISTRATE’S COURT

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27073, 23 June 1953, Page 7

MAGISTRATE’S COURT

MONDAY (Before Mr Rex. C. Abernethy, S.M.) THEFT OF CLOCK John Cruden Kennedy, aged 45, a watersider (Mr A. Hearn), pleaded guilty to a charge that on June 11 he stole a clock. Valued at £1 10s, the property of Arthur Bertram Thorpe. He was admitted to probation for dne year. Detective-Sergeant G. W. Alty prosecuted. His statement of the case followed the lines of the one he gave when Kennedy appeared last Monday. Mr Hearn said that Kennedy was a first offender and had a reputable record. His offence had nothing to do with his employment. It was an isolated, .unpremeditated, and extremely foolish act. Kennedy had no need to steal the clock, which was not of great value. He had been drinking that day and was undoubtedly affected by liquor. A fine might m6et the case.

“Kennedy, there seemes to be one thing you have to watch. I am not going to tell you that you shall not drink; but if a man makes a habit of going round hotels he is running a* risk and is going to get into trouble one way or another,” said the Magistrate. “The report of the Probation Officer shows that you are not a man who is likely to appear here again and I will give you a chance to rehabilitate yourself.”

INTOXICATED MOTORIST FINED James Edmond McCord, aged 25, a storeman (Mr W. F. Brown), pleaded guilty to being intoxicated while in charge of a motor-car on the Main North road at Woodend on June 6.

He was fined £l2, his driver’s licence was cancelled, and he was disqualified from obtaining another for 12 months. Sub-Inspector J. C. Fletcher said that a traffic officer saw a car being driven in a wavery way and, when he passed it, he thought the driver was intoxicated. He turned and found that the car had stopped and the driver and a passenger were on the side of the road having a dispute. Constable L. Woodsford, of Kaiapoi, was called and McCord was taken to the Kaiapoi police station. Dr. C. F. McKee examined McCord and certified him as unfit to drive. He was quite a decent young man and was a first offender. Mr Brown said that McCord was taking a friend and the friend’s wife home from a race meeting. The man and wife had an argument and the man wanted to get out of the car. McCord tried to reason with him but would not stop the car. The man interfered with the car and that accounted for the apparent erratic driving. McCord had to stop and he then tried to persuade his friend to get back into the car. That happened twice. If it had not been for these incidents McCord would not have come under the notice of the traffic inspector. It was not a bad case of intoxication. McCord was in a serious accident in July, 1951, when he received head and leg injuries, one leg now being three inches short. He had spent a very long period in hospital, and would have to receive more treatment. The Magistrate said that, in all the circumstances, he thought it proper not to send McCord Jo gaol. INDECENT ACT David Davis, aged 31, a truck driver (Mr D. W. Russell), pleaded guilty to a charge that he committed an indecent act in Armagh street on May 28. He was admitted to probation for two years, a special condition being that he submits himself to psychiatric treatment. PROBATION FOR THEFT “You have tried to buy popularity, and you have bought nothing,” said the Magistrate, when Douglas Hastie, aged 21, a printer (Mr J. E. Millar), appeared on a charge of stealing £lO, the property of Richard Anthony Phillips, on May 29, 1953. Hastie, who pleaded guilty, was admitted to probation for two years. Detective-Sergeant G. W. Alty said the money was taken from a tin kept by his employer to hold money for employees’ income-tax. Hastie had been the treasurer of a hockey club and, during the year, had become £3O short in the funds, He told the police that this had been worrying him. That money, and the money taken from his employer, had since been made good. Mr Millar said that Hastie neither gambled nor drank. “Hastie, you still have some friends who will help put you back again on the right track,” said the Magistrate, “and there is no reason why you should not become a decent citizen in the future.” An application for suppression of the name was refused. MADE FALSE DOCUMENT Frederick John Painter, aged 48, a sheetmetal worker and labourer, pleaded guilty to charges that on February 16, 1953, he made a false document—an order to the Christchurch Gas, Coal, and Coke Company, Ltd., to hand to the bearer all moneys from the meters at 68 Ranfurly street, St. Albans—purporting to be signed Mrs Mitcham, with intent that it should be acted on as genuine; that on February 16, 1953, he stole £7 18s 3d. the property of the Christchurch Gas, Coal, and Coke Company, Ltd.; and that between January 10, 1953, and February 1, 1953, he stole a suit, valued at £l2, the property of Leonard Arthur Truman. Painter was sentenced to imprisonment for one month with hard labour on each of the three charges, the terms to be concurrent. -

Detective-Sergeant G. W. Alty said that Painter called at the Christchurch Gas, Coal, and Coke Company, Ltd., and asked for the rebate money from the meters at an apartment house in Ranfurly street owned by Mrs Mitcham. Painter had lived there for a time. He was told that he could not take the money without first producing an order from the owner of the house. Painter later returned with a note authorising payment to the bearer and collected the money. The offences were discovered when Mrs Mitcham called at the company’s office to collect the rebates and was told they already had been paid. Painter was interviewed by Acting-Detective R. W. Ball and admitted the offences. The coat was stolen from a man with whom Painter once shared a bach. “He seems to spend his time largely in hotels and living on his wits,” said DetectiveSergeant Alty. “You have not been to gaol before,” said the Magistrate, “and if this were a single offence I might have considered probation. But from what the police and the Probation Officer say it appears that you have been living by sponging on other people.” BREACH OF PROBATION Kathleen McKinney, aged 27, a domestic, pleaded guilty to a charge of committing a breach of the terms of her probation by failing to report and failing to make restitution as directed by the Court. She was ordered to come up for sentence within 12 months if called upon to do so, a condition being that she make payments in restitution as directed by the Probation Officer. The case was heard last Monday. “I am going to give you one final chance,” said the Magistrate. “If you do not make the payments as directed by the Probation Officer you will have to come back here and go to gaol.” REMANDED Peter Laurence Harkess, aged 25, a labourer, pleaded guilty to charges of unlawfully converting to his own use a motor-cycle, valued at £lBO, the property of Herbert Geoffrey Howden, on June 20, and of stealing an overcoat valued at £5, the property of Robert Harold Alcock, on June 20. He was remanded for one week for a report from the Probation Officer. Raymond Joseph Evans, aged 21, a labourer, pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing an overcoat and gloves, of a total value of £l3 10s, the property of Graeme Bathune Gibson, on May 30, 1953. He was remanded for a week for a report from the Probation Officer. Thomas Harold Cranch, aged 18, a farm labourer, was further remanded on renewed bail to June 25 on one charge of false pretences, one of unlawfully converting a motor-cycle to his own use, and one of unlawfully converting a bicvcle to his own use. Harold Windsor Mclvor, aged 32, a ship’s steward (Mr M. G. L. Loughnan), was remanded by consent to July 1 on a charge of deserting from the British ship Hurunui at Lyttelton on May 5. He was

allowed bail in his own recognisance of £5O and one surety of £lOO on condition that he report* daily to the police.