Magistrates Court Overcharging For Sugar Costs Grocer £13 16s

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28766, 11 December 1958, Page 20

Magistrates Court Overcharging For Sugar Costs Grocer £13 16s

When a woman went into Charles Edward Smith’s grocery shop at 220 Barbadoes street on August 18 to K buy sugar, she was overcharged 4d and 2d on two lots. She complained to the PriceControl Division. An inspector who then visited the shop on October 1 and bought fflb of sugar, found he had been overcharged 3}d. As a result, Smith faced three charges in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday of selling sugar at a price not in conformity with the price order. Smith said he pleaded “guilty in ignorance.” For the Price Control Division, Mr J. B. Hutchison said that the wholesale price of sugar was £7O 15s 4d a ton, and the retail price 8.7 d per lb. The charge for 61b should be 4s 4sd for a cash sale, or 4s 6d if sold on credit. The inspector had ,been charged 4s lOd for 61b instead of 4s 4|d, an overcharge of 5Jd. The present price of sugar had been in force since April 1, and there had been newspaper publicity «t the time of . the decrease in price, Mr Hutchison said. Smith told Mr A. P. Blair, S.M., that he had been working from a Four Square price list r which was sent out every week by that organisation. ...

Questioned by the Magistrate, he said he had been in business for 12 months.

The Magistrate said he accepted Smith's explanation that it was not a case of deliberate Overcharging, but at thO same time it was Smith’s duty, being in business, to be acquainted with correct charges.

Smith was convicted and fined £1 on each charge, with Court costs of £4 10s and solicitor’s fees of £6 6s. OVERCHARGED FOR EGGS Leonard William Davies was fined £1 for selling mixed hen eggs at a price not in conformity with the price order on October 9. He pleaded guilty.

Mr J. B. Hutchison, who appeared for the Price Control Division, said that an inspector of the department had visited the defendant’s shop in New Brighton after a complaint had been made. He had bought half a dozen eggs, for which he was charged 2s 3d. OPENED SHOP AFTER HOURS John Callan Patrick Pope, was fined £2 for failing to close his shop after business hours on October 16. Mr G. D. Jensen, for the Inspector of Factories, said the defendant conducted a mixed business at 147 Opawa road. An inspector had visited the shop at 7.30 p.m. on the day of the offence and found the shop open for business and a “very considerable quantity” of non-exempted goods exposed. NO RETURN OF INCOME John Douglas Lorimer Scott, a land salesman, of Kaiapoi, was fined £5 for failing to furnish a return of income for 1957. WANDERING STOCK For allowing cattle to wander on Lunns road, Middleton, on August 15, Theodorus Evardus Jurrius, was convicted and fined a total of £3, with Court costs of £3 and solicitor’s fees of £4 14s 6d. on two charges. Mr M. G. L. Loughnan appeared for Jurrius, and Mr R. G. Penlington for the Paparua County Council, which prosecuted. REMANDED Joseph Tuku Cootes was remanded to December 15 on a charge of stealing an Army jacket valued at £4, the property of the United States Government, on December 7. Bail was allowed in the accused’s own recognisance of £lOO, with one surety of £lOO, and he was ordered to report daily to the police.