Magistrate’s Court SEVEN DAYS’ GAOL FOR DRUNKEN DRIVING

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29060, 24 November 1959, Page 12

Magistrate’s Court SEVEN DAYS’ GAOL FOR DRUNKEN DRIVING

“Drunken drivers are dangerous drivers and although the medical report shows that you were not a bad case of intoxication your reactions were slow and rather dull—a typical reaction to overindulgence in liquor and a substantial cause of the accident.” said Mr Raymond Ferner, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday when he imposed a term of one week’s imprisonment on James William Jarvie. aged 35, a watersider (Mr W. F. Brown). Jarvie pleaded guilty to driving while under the influence of drink or drugs on November 8. His driving licence was cancelled for three years. He was also fined £3 for having no warrant of fitness, to which he pleaded guilty. Evidence was given that while driving along the main road, Redcliffs, at 1.30 p.m. on November 18 the defendant veered over to the wrong side of the road and while returning to the correct side he struck an oncoming car. The defendant admitted to a traffic officer at the scene having had some liquor, although he was not a particularly bad .case.

Mr Brown said the defendant maintained that shortly before the accident he had flicked some cigarette ash out the window but it had blown back into his eye, causing him to veer over to the wrong side of the road. He tried to get the car over to the correct side but was unable to do so before the collision. He asked the Magistrate to take into consideration that it was a borderline case, and that the defendant, whose vehicle was not insured, would have to bear heavy expenses from the accident. ASSAULT CHARGE

Details of how a man under the influence of liquor had attacked two young persons sitting at the foot of the Godley statue in Rolleston avenue were given by Sergeant T. A. Marson when Phillip Arthur Lampwright, aged 35, a labourer, pleaded guilty to assaulting Elizabeth Stokes and Paul Gregg, and using indecent language in a public place. He was convicted and fined £3 on each of the two charges of assault on November 21, and £5 on the charge of indecent language.

Sergeant Marson said that Lampwright had swung a shopping bag at Gregg who had warded it off- with his arm. Lampwright had then become excited and had rushed at the couple swinging his fists. He had .knocked Miss Stokes to the ground and had struck Gregg several times. Sergeant Marson said that the police had found him later drinking whisky from a tin mug in Hagley Park. Lampwright, who was not represented by counsel, said that he was drinking vodka, not whisky. “I am very, very deeply sorry indeed. I don’t remember what I did,” he said. He told the Court that he was going to join Alcoholics Anonymous to help him cure his drinking habits. OESCENE EXPOSURE Mervyn Lester Camage, aged 22, a carpenter, who was not represented by counsel, pleaded guilty to a charge of obscene exposure in Lake Terrace road bn

November 22. He was remanded to November 30 for a probation officer’s report and sentence. SUSPENDED SENTENCE

A woman, whose name was suppressed, was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence within six months if called upon, when she pleaded guilty to being unlawfully on enclosed premises on November 16. She was represented by Mr G. R. Lascelles. About 6.40 a.m. on November 16 the proprietor of a guesthouse went to a bedroom in an annex and found the defendant in bed. She was not a guest and had no authority to be there, although she had previously been a lodger and stayed in the room. Some days before the board she had paid in advance had been refunded and she had been asked to leave. There was some doubt about her mental condition. The defendant had committed a silly action which was probably due to her sub-normal mental i ake-up, Mr Lascelles said. She had no previous convictions.

After a hearing a report from a welfare officer the Magistrate said: “You knew that to go back to the premises you had been asked to leave was wrong I ai.i told you have been behaving in an irregular way for some time. If you continue like this and make a deliberate nuisance of yourself you will be confined in prison or a mental institution.” REMANDED "The defendant has been in custody since October 25 and has been remanded on two occasions and there is still no medical report available,” said Mr M. G. L. Loughnan, when he appeared for Alexander Corbett, aged 52, who is charged with unlawfully interfering with' a motor vehicle valued at £4OO. He opposed a further remand for a fortnight. “I don’t see any use in hastening the matter,” the Magistrate said. “This is a new procedure and the reports are invaluable to the Court. The defendant will be remanded to November 30.” Verdun Clive Thomson, aged 34, an opossum trapper (Mr W. F. Brown) was remanded to November 30 on a charge of driving under the influence of drink or drugs on November 15. Bail was mewed

On charges of driving while under the influence of drink or drugs, driving while disqualified, and having no warrant of fitness in November 12, Frederick Maxwell Singer, aged 42, a labourer, was remanded on bail to November 30. ' Allister Adam Crosbie McPherson, aged 56, was remanded on renewed bail to November 30 on a charge of driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of drink or drugs on November 14. Reginald Leonard Egan, aged 41, was remanded to November 30 on a charge of breaking and entering the dwellinghouse of Elizabeth Margaret Lloyd at Nelson on November 12.

Three men charged with breaking and entering the United States Navy P.X. store at Christchurch Airport and committing theft were further remanded to November 30. Kenneth Malcolm McDonald, aged 34 (Mr B. J. Drake), and Harold Maurice Smither, aged 41 (Mr R. J. de Goldi), were remanded in custody by consent.

An application for bail by David Mervyn Coates, aged 33 <Mr G. R. Lascelles) was refused. Sergeant Marson said that he firmly opposed bail. Coates had a history of breaking from custody and the amount involved was a large one.