CAR PUSHED OVER CUFF

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28492, 23 January 1958, Page 14

CAR PUSHED OVER CUFF

Attempt To Defraud Insurance Firm

(New Zealand Press Association >

ROTORUA, January 22. John Joseph Reardon, aged 27, a rigger, of Wairakei, who pushed his car over a cliff near Hatepe, on the Taupo-Turangi road to try to get the insurance, was convicted and fined £lO and costs £1 when he appeared before Mr W. ,H. Freeman, S.M., in the Rotorua Magistrate’s Court today. Reardon admitted a charge of wilfully damaging his car to the extent of £4OO, with intent to defraud the North British Insurance Company. Detective D. L. Gray said Reardon was the owner of a 1951 model car for which he paid £5OO second-hand. He insured it for £4OO. On September 15 last, the car went over a cliff near Hatepe. It dropped 100 ft to the rocks below and was wrecked.

Reardon told the police at Taupo that he had driven too close to the edge and had only had time to scramble out before the car went over the bank.

Reardon later admitted pushing the car over the cliff. He said he had become despondent over the performance of the car. On the spur of the. moment, he decided to “shove it over the cliff.” He had spent more than £2OO *in repairs from the time he bought the vehicle.

* ‘This was a very foolish* thing,” the Magistrate told Reardon. “You bought a pup, and anyone buying a second-hand car should look at it with both eyes wide open. Sec-ond-hand cars are always sold for a very good reason. People should realise that.

“You spent £250 trying to fix this thing up. Now you have lost the lot.”