Magistrate’s Court Disqualified Driver Fined £25

Press, Volume C, Issue 29554, 1 July 1961, Page 14

Magistrate’s Court Disqualified Driver Fined £25

K detective wag called to i give evidence for the defence yesterday in a charge brought in the Magistrate's Court against Allan Bede Holmes, a horse trainer and farmer, of Yaldhurst, of driving a motor truck while disqualified ini School road, Yaldhurst, on the evening of Saturday. April 15. Evidence was given that Holmes, after telephoning the police that his brother's horse float had been converted from his farm, had driven round the area to find the offenders. He met a police patrol which he thought had been sent in answer to his call It was not the C. 1.8. but uniformed police inspecting Yaldhurst dance hall activities. The tnree constables in the car did not believe Holmes's story that a horse float had been taken. One constable recognised Holmes as a disqualified driver. Mr A. P. Blair. S.M.. convicted Holmes and fined him £25. He said there were special reasons, however, for Holmes's having driven the truck on this occasion, and imposed no extension of his disqualification from driving. Holmes, who was represented by Mr R. A. Young, pleaded not guilty. Holmes, in evidence, said his farm was in three blocks, the block on which his house was built being bounded by the West Coast road. Hasketts road, and School road. One of the other blocks contained sheds where he stored hay and agricultural equipment. His brother’s horse float was also kept there. He said that he had always had considerable trouble, particularly on Saturday nights, with hooligans. He had once had his oat stack burned, his car had been converted and wrecked, and petrol taken from his tractor several times. Fuel pipes on his hay baler had been damaged recently, and young persons had opened horse stalls containing valuable mares and stallions, one bound for Australia. "The Yaldhurst dance hall is a quarter of a mile away, and I am always worried about the farm on Saturday nights,” Holmes said. Holmes said that on the Saturday night in question he heard a ncise from the sheds about 10.45 p.m. He thought somebody was stealing hay, then saw lights come out of the shed. He had no time to call the police then, but got into his old farm truck and drove out on to Hasketts road. The horse float went past him. and while he was turning it went into School road. It stopped in front of his house, and the converters abandoned it. Holmes said he drove to his house and rang the police, then got his son from bed. Holmes said he then drove round the area, following two cars and taking their numbers. "When I came across the police car I thought it was there in answer to my call,” he said. Things got a little hot while he was trying to explain that his float had been converted and then abandoned outside his house “I made the mistake of thinking they had come in answer to my call. I thought they were silly, and I think they thought I was silly,” he said. Detective D. C. Lee said he went to Holmes's house, heard an argument and came across Holmes and the other police patrol in School road. After giving them Holmes's name and telling them he would take over the case, he drove round the area with Holmes to check cars, and saw headlights in School road. He later found the horse float had been taken again from outside the house, and after a search found it had been driven back into the yard by the converters. Mr Young submitted that by taking his truck Holmes was performing a public duty in trying to prevent the commission of a crime. He had acted properly in taking, the truck to try to stop the! offenders. It was the only i means he had of getting! quickly to the scene of the, crime. "MENACE TO LIFE" Describing William Robert Ruff Astle. aged 33. a painter, as having been a menace to life on the early evening of March 8 when he committed a number of driving offences, the Magistrate imposed a fine and costs totalling £43 and disqualified him from driving for three years. “Persons such as you should be off the road. and I must treat the matter no better or no worse than if you had been a drunken driver.'’ the Magistrate said He fined Astle £25. with costs, and cancelled his licence for three years on a charge of dangerous driving j in Beeley avenue. Hi ordered him to pay costs and witnesses’ expenses of £lB. and cancelled his licence for one year, for failing to ascertain if any person wr.s injured in a collision in which he was involved in Buckleys road. The licence cancellations are to be concurrent. On charges of failing to stop after an accident in Bucklers road, and driving without due care and attention. he was convicted and discharged Astle. who was represented bv Mr B. A. Barrer. pleaded not guilty to all charges. Tn evidence. Astle denied having travelled along Bealey or Fitzgerald avenues. He said he had had about three or four beers at th* Carlton Hotel. The Magistrate said he accented bevond doubt prosecution evidence that Astir had driven along Bealey and Fitzgerald avenues, and had)

collided with a cyclist In Buckleys road. CBetan Mr J. D. Willis, SM.) REMANDED David William Martin, aged I 18, a student, was remanded to July 6 on a charge of wilfully damaging a statue i valued at £7O on June 12. The statue, of Florence Nightingale, is the property of the Father Divine Peace Mission. DRIVER GAOLED An 18-year-old Wellington motor mechanic. Karehoma Peter Ell. was sent to gaol for a month for driving while disqualified in Christchurch on March 27. His period of disqualification was extended! to June, 1963. He pleaded' guilty. Ell (Mr P. G. S. Penlington) was also fined £lO on| charges of driving without due care and attention, and; impersonating a police officer.) He pleaded guilty to the first; charge after it was reduced from dangerous driving, and) not guilty to the second. Traffic Officer J. R. Krippner said he saw Ell make a sharp turn into Lyttelton street, and a sharp U-turn after travelling a quarter of! a mile. Both times the car rose up on to two wheels. Ell refused to give his name and said he was a nolice officer stationed in Wellington, he said A mechanic. R. T. A. McKay. said faulty shock absorbers in the car would have made it lean over when cornering. Ell denied saying he was a police officer. He said his lack of knowledge of Christchurch streets and a sudden decision to buy some cigar-! ettes caused him to make both turns. He said he told the officer* to take his number and “get to hell out of it.” The Magistrate said this was Ell’s second appearance for dangerous driving, and his second for driving while disqualified. He described Ell as a menace on the roads, and a larrikan. DROVE DANGEROUSLY A car that turned with squealing tyres out of Cathedral square on May 6. appeared nearly to tip over said Constable E. J. Petersen. Describing the car's journey around city streets.; he said he saw it nearly tip over several times, ignore ’ traffic lights, and cause pedestrians to jump out of the way. Pleading not guilty to a charge of dangerous driving was Ralph Frank Hichens. He was convicted, fined £25, and his driving licence w,»s can-’ celled for two years. Hichens (Mr D. W. Rus-) sed> denied driving danger-j ously. He said the traffic.' lights were on amber when he tui lied at the intersec-! tion of Armagh and Man-1 Chester streets. DRIVING LICENCE I CANCELLED A company representative. 1 | Han® Mensink, was fined £l5l and prohibited from driving i for a year for driving his! firm's car in a dangerous! manner on Dyer’s Pass road.! on March 19. Mensink (Mr E. S. Bowie) | pleaded not guilty, OTHER TRAFFIC CHARGES In other traffic cases brought by the police, offenders were dealt with as follows: Failed to give way: John; Charles Rochester Basher.! £5; Sibbley Kathleen Brueton. £5; Ernest Lascelles | Bonisch. £7 10s: Keith! Melville Davis. £5; Raymond | George Edmonds. £5; Robin, John Galvin. £5, licence cancelled for one month: Patrick Keane. £7 10s. and licence suspended for one month (no warrant of fitness. £5l; John Stenhen De Laby Lowry. £7 10s. licence suspended for one month <no warrant of fitness. £s*; Robin James Quiglev. £7 10s and licence suspended for one month. No driving licence: William Edward George Burgess. £4. No warrant of fitness: James Thomas Christie, £4: William John Erridge, £5: I Roger Steven Lows (two i charges’). £2 and £2: Sandor I To*h. £5. I Drove without due care , and attention: Daniel Joseph j O’Donovan. £7 Ids; David ! Jonas Gibson. £lO. driving! licence cancelled and dis-, qualified from obtaining an-i other for one month: DonaldAlan Horgan. £lO, disquali-i fled from driving for three months (mutilated driving licence. £3). Failed to stop at stop sign: Anthonv Eden, £5; James Allan Gorrie. £lO. licence cancelled and disqualified' from obtaining another for one month. Failed to notify disposal' of vehicle: Bruce Jones. £3j