JUDGE QUASHES CONVICTIONS

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29352, 3 November 1960, Page 21

JUDGE QUASHES CONVICTIONS

Importer’s Actions Not Illegal (Neu: Zealand Press Association) NAPIER, November 2. An order quashing convictions of Alexander Frederick Finch, a Napier importer, in the Magistrate’s Court at Napier on May 16. on five charges involving alleged illegal importation of transistor radio sets, has been made by Mr Justice McCarthy in a reserved judgment. The motion for the order was heard in the Supreme Court at Nanier on September 29. The ground of the motion was that the Order-in-Council—-namely the Import Control Regulations (1938)—was not made nor could it have been deemed to be made, under section 46 of the Customs Act and, accordingly, the alleged offences were not offences in law and the convictions were invalid. Finch was convicted on six charges—five of alleged breaches of the Customs Act and one charge alleging a breach of the Sdles Tax Act. He was fined a total of £250. After giving his reasons for making the order quashing the convictions, his Honour said: “As the regulations now stand it seems to me that if the draftsman in drawing regulation 16 has not spread his net wide enough, the plaintiff is not liable to punishment. The order quashing the convictions sought in the motion will be made. The plaintiff may have his costs against the Collector of Customs, and these are fixed at £l5 155.”