THEFT OF SAW ALLEGED

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29130, 16 February 1960, Page 8

THEFT OF SAW ALLEGED

Crown’s Case Outlined

The Crown contended that George Maurice, aged 38, a workman, had sold a power saw ho had borrowed and had pocketed the proceeds, Mr C. M. Roper told a jury in the Supreme Court j’Qsterdßy* Maurice Is charged with stealing a power saw, valued at £BO, the property of Trevor Frederick Mounce, a dairy farmer of Springfield, on July 17, 1959. Evidence for the Crown was being given when the trial was adjourned until today. Mr J. A. Bretherton is defending Maurice.

Outlining the prosecution evidence, Mr Roper said that the accused borrowed the power saw from Mounce in June or early July for a few days. In August, Mounce saw the accused in Christchurch. The ac-cused-then said the the saw had been broken when a tree fell on it, but that he was getting it repaired and would return it shortly. Mounce tried in .vain to locate Maurice to get the saw, then in November went to the police, Mr Roper said. On November 13, a detective questioned the accused about the saw. Accused had said he still had it, but it was at Hanmer where a tree had fallen on it, and it had to be repaired. The detective called back on November 17, when the accused produced the power saw. The detective pointed out that the saw had a serial number on it different from that on Mounce’s saw. The accused said the saw had been practically rebuilt after having been smashed. “The detective took the saw in good faith from thfe accused, but inquiries showed that Mounce’s saw, which he had lent to the accused in early June for a few days had been sold for £4O in Christchurch to a man called Harper, on July 17,” Mr Roper said. Mounce was giving evidence when the Court adjourned.