MAN KEPT WATCH FOUND IN TAXI

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28754, 27 November 1958, Page 21

MAN KEPT WATCH FOUND IN TAXI

Theft Conviction

Upheld

(New Zealand Press Association) WANGANUI, November 26. An appeal by David Smith against his conviction in the Magistrate’s Court on a charge of stealing a woman’s wristlet watch which he found on the back seat of a taxi, was dismissed by Mr Justice McGregor in the Supreme Court at Wanganui.

Mr C. L. Ribdet, who appeared for the appellant, submitted that when Smith took the watch from the back seat of the taxi, he had no intention of stealing it. The holding by the Magistrate that a person who found an article and held it in the hope of reward was guilty of theft was erroneous in law.

The Crown Prosecutor (Mr N. R. Bain) said the appellant had made no attempt to find the owner of the watch and was therefore guilty of theft.

His Honour said the circumstances of the case were somewhat unusual. The facts were that Smith had seen a woman’s wristlet watch on the back seat of a taxi as he entered it. Some eight or nine days later, the watch was still in his possession —or rather that of his wife to whom he had given it—when police inquiries were made. He considered that if the appellant’s intentions had been honest, he would have informed the taxidriver that he had found the watch on the back seat. It seemed that the appellant had been rightly convicted. However, the offence was in no way premeditated. The appellant saw the watch and apparently yielded to a sudden temptation.