Magistrate’s Court £30 Fine On Attempted Conversion Charge

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28930, 25 June 1959, Page 18

Magistrate’s Court £30 Fine On Attempted Conversion Charge

When a car owner returned to his parked car at the corner of Gloucester street and Stanmore road, he found two men inside, said Sergeant T. A. A. Marson in the Magistrate's Court yesterday. The owner held one of the men until police arrived. Later it was found that an extra fuse had been inserted in the ignition switch, and an attempt had been made to start the car, he said.

Before Mr N. M. Izard, S.M.. Christopher McCarthy, aged 24, an assistant steward in the Rangitoto, pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawfully attempting to convert a motor vehicle on June 23. McCarthy who said he was drunk, was convicted and fined £3O. Sergeant Marson said the defendant told the police that he was prepared to take full responsibility for the offence. He would not name the other man. TAX CHARGES

“There is no point in imposing a substantial penalty in this case, but the fine should not be taken as a precedent as there are special circumstances.” said the Magistrate when fining Charmonte Creations. Ltd., £5 on a charge of applying £l6B 15s Social Security charge deducted from wages between April 1, 1956. and March 31, 1958, for another purpose. The charge related to the managing director’s salary which was £lOOO for the year ended March 31, 1957, and £1250 for the following year, said Mr P. F. Feenstra, who prosecuted. The company was subsequently placed in the hands of a receiver and later went into liquidation. An explanation was received from the accountant but it related to a period after the date of the charge. The tax had not been paid.

Mr J. B. Stringer, who appeared on behalf of the receiver, said the company was now in voluntary liquidation and there was a considerable number of creditors. He understood that a dividend of only about 3s in the £ would be paid to unsecured creditors. The managing director’s salary was dependent on the company and although drawings were made during the year, the full amount was not known until the end of the financial year. Any fine the Court would impose would only fall on the unsecured creditors and would reduce the amount to be paid to them. The managing director of the company was to face a similar charge and had indicated that it would be defended, Mr Feenstra said.

Thomas William Hodder (Mr D. J. Boyle) who pleaded guilty to a charge of applying £95 Is 3d wages tax to another purpose, between May 1, and October 31, 1958, was convicted and fined £lO. Mr Boyle said that the defendant started a business with insufficient capital, and he had to spend every penny he earned on equipment There had been no attempt at concealment, he said. The Magistrate said he would impose a nominal penalty of £2 on Donaldson Tanihera Miller, who pleaded not guilty to a charge of applying £Bl Is 5d social security charge to another purpose. Miller admitted that the money had not been paid. He said he had sufficient mpney to pay the department, but it was “tied up” in the hands of a solicitor. The Magistate said it was the responsibility of the employer to see the tax was paid. NO INCOME RETURN R. A. Blackwell Ltd. (Mr J. E. Millar) was fined £5 for failing to furnish a return of income for 1958. A plea of guilty was entered. No return pt income had been received by the Department of Internal Revenue for the year ended March 31, 1958, said Mr P. F. Feenstra, who prosecuted. A warning leter was sent to the company on March 18, 1959. The company’s accountant had said the return would be filed on May 11 but this had not been done. There was some dispute between

the proprietor of the company and the public accountant employed by the company as to whose fault it was the return had not been made, Mr Millar said. The company had paid a default assessment which he had been instructed was far greater than would have been paid had a return been made. The return would be filed that day. John Henry Campbell Malloy (Mr A. F. Shaw), who pleaded guilty to three charges of failing to furnish income tax returns was fined £3 on each charge. Mr P. F. Feenstra prosecuted for the Department of Inland Revenue. I. R. Bennington, Ltd., plastic manufacturers (Mr D. E. Arnes), was fined £5 for failing to furnish an income tax return. The company pleaded guilty. Breakwell Nurseries, Ltd., pleaded guilty to a charge of furnishing a false income tax return on July 7, 1958. The company was convicted and fined £5 IDLE AND DISORDERLY

Brian Leslie Bishop, aged 18, was remanded to June 29 on a charge of being idle and disorderly on June 23. He was allowed bail of £lOO with a surety of the same amount. Sergeant T. A. A. Marson said that Bishop was something of a vagrant. When found by police he told them he had nowhere to go and nowhere to sleep. He was in a filthy unkempt condition, he said.

Mr J. H. Jeffrey, a probation officer, said that Bishop was released on probation last week. Employment and accommodation had been arranged, but he had no idea why Bishop had not chosen to take either. COMPANY FINED

Miracle M n at Marketeerias. Ltd., (Mr K. W. Frampton), pleaded guilty to a charge of keeping a preparation of sodium nitrate, of more than the authorised concentrate, in a retail butcher’s shop. The company was convicted and fined £7 10s. Mr J. G. Leggat, for the Health Department, said that a meat inspector saw a bottle of sodium nitrate in the defendant company’s shop. The preparation was a 98 per cent, concentrated preservative, of which the regulation usage was J per cent. In its concentrated form it could not be brought into a room that contained meat. The prosecution did not suggest it had been used, but it was a possible scource of danger, he said. Mr Frampton said that the solution was normally kept in an attached shed. On the day the inspector called, the manager had taken it into the shop to add to a brine solution. He was called into the shop to serve customers, and left the bottle on a shelf in the office, he said. NO RADIO LICENCES The following persons were fined for having no radio licence: Daniel Everest, £2; Adriaan Kortman, £2; Lilly Suckling, £1; Stephen Radnoty, £1; John Keenan, £2; Nola Alston, £2. REMANDED Reginald March Diamond, aged 25 (Mr R. S. D. Twyneham), was remanded to June 29 on a charge of theft to the value of £lO 9s 6d, between December 1 and March 1. He was allowed bail of £5O with a surety for the same amount and ordered to report to the police daily. (Before Messrs A. Henderson and W. W. Laing, Justices of the Peace) COMMITTED FOR TRIAL James Albert Fowlds, aged 32 (Mr G. R. Lascelles), who pleaded not guilty and elected trial by jury on two charges of false pretences and one charge of attempted false pretences, involving a total of £64 was committed for trial at the Supreme Court. He was allowed bail at £lOO with one surety of £lOO. • Charles Edgar Joseph White, who elected trial by jury, on a charge of stealing a bedspread valued at £l2 6s 6d, the property of Robina Jane Harrison, on May 21, was committed for trial in the Supreme Court. White, who was represented by Mr J. N. Matson, pleaded not guilty.