APPEALS AGAINST FINES

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28284, 23 May 1957, Page 6

APPEALS AGAINST FINES

Mr Justice Finlay’s Comment (New Zealand Press Association) HAMILTON, May 22. If it was going to be suggested that penalties imposed by one Magistrate were out of harmony with those of other Magistrates, then that must be proved, said Mr Justice Finlay in the Supreme Court at Hamilton yesterday. He indicated that it was no use putting forward merely the amount of fines imposed for specific types of offence by different Magistrates; he would require all details which might be relevant to be placed before the Court so that the Court could weigh these up. His Honour heard three appeals by transport operators against penalties imposed on them by Mr Stewart Hardy, S.M., for offences relating to heavy motorvehicles. Two of these he stood down, counsel in one undertaking to place before the Court evidence concerning the fines imposed for specific offences by various Magistrates. An appeal by Crispin Henry Shelley (Mr M. J. Minogue) against fines totalling £25 imposed by Mr Hardy on charges of exceeding the axle weight, exceeding the maximum permitted load on a class 111 road and altering a heavy traffic licence, was dismissed by his Honour.