Magistrate’s Court FINED £l5 FOR FAILING TO GIVE INFORMATION

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29246, 2 July 1960, Page 17

Magistrate’s Court FINED £l5 FOR FAILING TO GIVE INFORMATION

Claiming that she did not know the whereabouts or the name of a man who had allegedly posed as her son’s friend and borrowed he car, Evelyn Maude Prince (Mr G. S. Brockett) pleaded not guilty in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday to a charge of failing to supply information. She was convicted and fined £l5. “I have no doubt she knows a good deal more of the man in the car at the critical time than she has disclosed in Court or to the constable,” said Mr A. P. Blair, S.M., when he imposed the fine. Constable A. Laverack said he called on Mrs Prince on March 28 and informed her that a car, belonging to her and driven by a man of about 20, had gone through a red light and had been driven on the wrong side of the road. She told him she could not recollect who was driving at the time and went out of the room and brought back an 18-year-old girl. Mrs Prince said the girl would be able to tell him who the driver was. The girl could not and when he told Mrs Prince that he wanted the truth, she ordered him from the house. “I told Mrs Prince she would probably hear more of this and she called me back inside and told me the driver was a friend of her son’s,” said Constable Laverack. “Mrs Prince could not tell me anything about him except that he was short, dark, and a sailor.

.“The next day Mrs Prince rang and shid she was trying to find out who the driver was and finished by saying: ‘lt looks as though I’m in the cart, doesn’t it.” When asked by Mr Brockett if his getting short with Mrs Prince had led to his being ordered from the house. Constable Laverack replied: “No. She had ordered police previously from the house and she said that they were trying to get a conviction against her.”

An 18-year-old girl, who was granted Suppression of her name, said she had .tqld Constable Laverack that the driver of the car was “Jimmy Jonhs.” She said she was told by Mrs Prince to, say this. Mrs Prince said that at the time her son was hl Wellington on a working holiday. A man came ardtand to her place and told her that he was a friend of her son, and he had been given permission to borrow the car. She took the opportunity to be driven out to see her father’s grave, and on returning home, the man left on his bicycle. She went into town. She came back at 6 p.m. and the car had gone. “The man arrived back with the car about 7.30 p.m. I asked him where he had been, and he told me -it was none of my business,” said Mrs Prince. “I asked my son about him, but he said the man was no friend of his.” REMOVED STOP SIGN

Found by police in the middle of Riccarton road roundabout with a stop sign taken from Riccarton road, three youths said they intended to erect it in the gardens as a joke, said Sergeant T. A. A. Marson. lhe youth, Alan Murray Barker, aged 17, Walter Graham Dyer, aged 19, and Hugh Alan Isdale, aged 17, University students, were each convicted and fined £l, when they were jointly charged with removing a traffic sign. REMANDED Frederick Charles Cole, aged 71, a retired farmer (Mr N. W. McGillivray), was remanded to July 11 on a charge of driving while under the influence of liquor on June 30 in Riccarton road. He was allowed bail at £lOO. TRAFFIC CASES On traffic charges brought "by the police, offenders were dealt with as follows: Driving without due care and attention:—Hugh Douglas Annett, £5; David McDonald Gillespie Finnie. £4; Keith John Kittelty, £5; John Pearce Martyn, £3 (failing to carry warrant of fitness, £1); Alan Selbyn Foord, £7 (failing to carry warrant of fitness, £1 10s); Murray Thomas Frost, £2 (vehicle not licensed. £5; no warrant of fitness, £1 10s); Peter James Hayward, £2 (no warrant of fitness, £1).

Failing to give way: Douglas Arthur English, £5. Parking offences: Lester Frederick Evans, £5; James Henry Hooper, £3; Ronald Malcolm

Hawthorne. £2 (no warrant of fitness, £2). Failing to carry a warrant of fitness: Neale John Cribb, £2 10s; John Douglas. £2; Paul Frederick Fuller, 10s; Douglas Walter Hornsby, £1 10s (using an unlicensed motor-cycle, £3). No driver’s licence: John Ariki Hirini, £4 (no warrant of fitness. £1 IDs); Alice Dorothy Williams, £2. Failing to stop at a compulsory stop: John Moon, £2. Using a motor-cycle without an effective silencer: Paul Gerald Crequer. £4 (no warrant of fitness, £1). Unlighted bicycle: Kevin John Adair, £2. Failing to notify change of ownership: Ivan Gerald Seymour, £1 10s (delivered a vehicle not covered by a warrant of fitness, 10s). Failing to notify registrar of disposal of car: Victor Dix Clapham. £1 10s. CHARGE DISMISSED Although evidence of an incident on the road from the Hilltop to Little River in which the police alleged a Dunedin commercial traveller nearly collided with a Ministry of Works truck engaged in road sealing could have supported a charge of driving without care or speeding, it was entirely unrelated to the circumstances of the second incident nine miles further on where the defendant’s car overturned, said the Magistrate. He dismissed a charge' against Ernest Francis Hermann, aged 52, of driving in a dangerous manner on the Christchurch - Akaroa highway three miles on the Christchurch side of Little River. The defendant, who pleaded not guilty, Was represented by Mr N. G. Hattaway.

The police charge of dangerous driving related to the second incident.

Dennis William Alfred Hawtin said that when the defendant’s van came in view on the Hilltop road, where sealing was in progress, it was travelling about 30 miles an hour ,in spite of road works notices restricting the speed to 15 miles an hour. “I thought there was going to be a collision between the van and a truck which was in the middle of the road spreading shingle,” said the witness. He said the van passed the other truck on the left against the bank, and swerved out to miss the truck he was in. The witness said he noted its number before it swerved round the corner out of sight. About 15 minutes later, as they were travelling home after the day’s work, he saw the van lying on its side about three miles past Little River.

Constable W. A. Cromie, of Little River, said there was heavy shingle at the point where the accident occurred. He found marks' in the shingle for about 61 yards indicating that the car was bearing to the right although not actually skidding until the last stages, Where it appeared to have turned sideways. The van was severely damaged, and appeared to have rolled over at least once. ~

The defendant said he had to turn into the shingle verge as an approaching car travelling near the middle of the road would not move over to allow him to pass. “When I went to give the steering wheel a hard pull to the right to drive out of the shingle the van started to skid,” said the defendant. He said a portable radio on top of his luggage behind him fell forward and struck him on the head while the car was in the skid. The defendant said he had driven about 600.000 miles since he first started driving 40 years ago. at the age of 12.