MAGISTRATE’S COURT

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27688, 18 June 1955, Page 10

MAGISTRATE’S COURT

FRIDAY (Before Mr Rex C. Abernethy, S.M.) TRAFFIC OFFENCES The following persons were prosecuted by the police for breaches of the traffic regulations and penalties were imposed as stated:— • Failing to give way.—Joan Edna Caffin. £2; Ada Vera McKenzie, £2; Charles Burton McNatty, £2; Stewart lan Hamilton Nicholls, £2; Alan Richards, £2. Using a motor-vehicle without due care and attention. —James Gordon Boughan. costs only; Douglas Stanley 'Raymond Rivett, £2 (no driver’s licence, 10s; no wararnt of fitness. £1). No driver’s licence. —Arthur Allan Stuart Bruce, 10s; Russell Ferguson Lawrence, £1 (no wararnt of fitness 10s); Joseph Searle, £1 (no warrant of fitness, £2). No warrant of fitness. —Walter James Farragher, 10s; Terence Joseph Lyons, £ 1. Failing to signal when making righthand turn. —Maurice Frederick White. £2. Attempting to cross railway line when it was not clear.—John Lawrence Murray, £2. Failing to stop at compulsory sign.— Maurice John Stanley Rossiter, £4. No lights on motor-car. —Alexander Bruce Searle, £2 (no warrant of fitness, £1; no driver’s licence, 10s). CHARGES DISMISSED A charge against Charles Robert Mitchell of using a motor-vehicle without due care and attention was dismissed. Evidence was given that Mitchell drove off the road about 9.20 p.m. on April 12, the two left .side wheels of his car running along the footpath for about 25 yards. In his statement, road in Court, Mitchell said he had had a long day and was on his way home from the office when he suddenly fell asleep. The Magistrate said there was no evidence that Mitchell had been fighting sleep and continued to drive. 11 he had done so he would have been liable but as he suddenly fell asleep without warning he was not liable. Albert John Reed, who was represented by Mr P. H. T. Alpers, pleaded not guilty to using a motor-vehicle without due care and attention. The Magistrate said there was a doubt whether the defendant did or did not exercise due care when he was turning his vehicle on the street and he was entitled to the benefit of any doubt there was. Charles James Wilson pleaded not guilty to using a motor-vehicle without due care and attention. He was reversing a truck near a shop in Ferry road parly in the morning and there was a collision ,when another vehicle came round a corner. The Magistrate dismissed the charge. BREACH OF PROBATION

Ngaire Hayman, aged 18, who appeared for sentence on a charge of committing a breach of the terms of her probation, was fined £2. DID NOT PAY TAXI FARE Francis Michael Peter Flynn, aged 58, a farm labourer, pleaded guilty to charges that on June 16 he failed to pay a taxi fare of £2 and that he was found drunk in Hereford street. He was fined £2 on the first charge and £1 on the second with 48 hours’ imprisonment in default of payment. Sub-Inspector F. J. Brady said that Flynn hired a taxi to take him to Lincoln where he had some business to do. He went to the hotel there and was later driven back to Christchurch. The taxi driver could not get the fare from Flynn so he took him to the police station. Flynn was drunk. He had £1 10s in his possession. He was a farm labourer in the Ashburton district and apparently had come to Christchurch on a drunken spree. REMANDED Robert Harold Joseph Wheeler, aged 41, a driver, was remanded to June 23 on a charge that on May 4 at Kaituna he stole two shotguns and a sheath knife, valued at £7O 12s 6d, the property of Kenneth Charles Pegley. He was allowed bail in his own recognisance of £5O and one surety of £5O.