Magistrates Court CAR STRUCK HOUSE; SCHOOLBOY FINED

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29843, 8 June 1962, Page 7

Magistrates Court CAR STRUCK HOUSE; SCHOOLBOY FINED

Piates. food, and broken t.mber were scattered about the kitchen of a house on the corner of Chester street and Dawson street after a car struck the house, according to evidence given before Mr A. P. Blair, S.M, in the Magistrate's Court yesterday. Peter James Gale, aged 15. a secondary schoolboy, was nr.ed £3 and prohibited from driving for 18 months on a .charge of driving a car with--01,1 care and attention on April 7. He pleaded not guilty, and was represented by Mr J. R. Woodward.

Beau McCracken said that he allowed Gale, who had no driver’s licence, to drive his car. He showed the defendant how to work the gears and told him to turn right .from Chester street into Daw*on street. After they made the turn they found they could not go along Dawson street because of a parked car. H:s car went off the road and ran into the bouse.

Mr Woodward said that Gale did everything in his power to drive with due care and attention. He had driven a car only once before. In Australia the person giving (instruction was considered ■to be the driver for the purpose of this type of charge. The standard of driving in ■New Zealand was the same for all persons, said the Magistrate. ■ "If you elect to drive a car you must come up to that standard. It was foolish of you in the first place to attempt to drive,” the Magistrate told Gale. CHARGE DENIED

Frederick .Harold Dry aged 54 (Mr B. J. Drake!, was fined £l5, and his driver's licence was canceled for three months, •when he was convicted of driving without due care and attention in Bridge street on March 31. He pleaded not guilty.

OTHER TRAFFIC CASES Offenders charged by the Transport Department were -fined as follows: Exceeding 30 miles an hour: Kennel] Batty. £4; Edward David Brown, tw*o charges. £3 and £4; David Hay, £3 (no •afety helmet £2); . John Charles Haworth, £4; Archibald Garnet Murray £5; James Roder Smythe. £5; Glenville Alexander Vaughan Gilbert, £8; William Thomas Hetherington. £5 (no warrant of fitness, £2); Arthur Robert Blain. £4; Donald Leslie Hammond, £8; Keith Anthony McGowan. £4.

Failing to stop at stop sign: Joseph Thompson. £3; Francises De Bil £4; Albert Manihera Duder. £5; Allan Masters. £3 (no warrant of fitness, £2); Douglas Mervyn Suter. £3. Breach of goods - service licence: Isaac 1 Construction Company. Ltd., two charges. £2 on each (unlicensed goods service, £2; failing to carry a vehicle authority, costs only). Driving in a dangerous manner; Kenneth George Webb, £l2 and drivers licence cancelled for one year. Driving without due care and attention: Terence Cooke £7. Proceeding from stop sign before road was clear. Leonard Graham, £6. Parking without reasonable consideration: Phillip Lester Hammond, £3. Breach of driver’s hours: Quill Morris Cowles Ltd., £5. Failing to yield right of way: Christopher James O’Malley. £5 Failing to keep to the left: Alister John Purdon. £5. Exceeding axle weight: Blogg Bros.. Ltd. (two charges). £5 on each. (Before Mr E. A. Lee. S.M.) DANGEROUS DRIVING A fine of £lO, with cancellation of his driver's licence for two years and a half, was imposed on Harry George Cockburn. aged 17. a factory hand, when he pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving on March 11. On a further charge of having no warrant at fitness. Cockburn was fined £2 He admitted both charges and was represented by Mr H W Thompson.

Sergeant B. D Read said that two constables in a police car in Cathedral square at 7.40 p.m. gaw a car stopped on the wrong

side of the road. The car drove oft suddenly through a line of traffic and started to weave from side to side. Its tyres screaming. The car turned into Worcester street, forcing an oncoming » car to stop suddenly. The car then turned into Manchester street and was checked at 40 to 45 miles an hour. Sergeant Read said that the car then broadsided in front of an oncoming car when turning into Oxford terrace. When the driver noticed the police car following him he slowed to 30 miles an hour. Cockburn had been drinking, but was not drunk The car was not in good condition. Mr Thompson said that the defendant now realised what driving a car involved. He asked that the dangerous driving charge be treated as a washingup charge, as the defendant had recently been fined for a similar offence and had had his driver's licence cancelled for two years SHOT CAT Walking along Rapaki road at 5 30 p.m. on March 31. Rudolph Seekles. aged 22. a student, took a rifle from a friend and shot a Siamese cat which was sitting in long grass, said Sergeant Read. Seekles pleaded guilty to charges of procuring a .22 rifle unlawfully and wilfully destroying property, valued at £l9. He was fined £1 on the first charge and £2 on the second. Seekles told the Court that he saw something black in the grass, and thought it might be an opossum. On a charge of delivering a firearm to an unauthorised person on March 31. Victor Frederick William Soeterik. aged 18. a student, was convicted and discharged. He pleaded guilty. PROBATION BREACH Pleading guilty to a charge .of breach of probation by failing to report as Instructed on March 27. Eric Cleow Rush was convicted and ordered to pay costs. Mr J. Ryley, a probation officer, said that Rush was released on probation on February 15 after serving a prison term of one year. He came to Christchurch and reported on February 23, but did not report the following week, and- an information was laid against him. He later reported, but the officer who saw him did not know an information had been laid. When Rush realised there was an information against him he gave himself up. REMANDED Allan Alexander Hamilton, aged 32. was remanded until June 15 on a charge of robbery, involving a wallet and money of a total value of £l9 10s, on June 2. Bail was refused. On a charge of having sexual intercourse with a girl between the age of 12 years and 16 years on June 5. Eric Lance Vincent was remanded on bail until June 16. HEARING ADJOURNED The hearing of a charge of driving without due care and attention in Grahams road on January 10, against Frank Mitchell, aged 50. was adjourned until this morning after three police witnesses had been heard. Mitchell (Mr W. F. Brown) pleaded not guilty to the charge, which arose out of a collision between a car driven by Mitchell and a motorscooter driven by Ronald Edward Pyne, at the corner of Grahams road and Guildford street at 8.10 p.m. OTHER TRAFFIC CASES In other traffic charges brought by the police, convictions were entered and fines imposed as follows: Falling to give way: John Neave, £5: Thomas Barry Trevor Scollard, £5 (no warrant of fitness. £3): Richard Charles Dyer, £6; James Andrew Fairweather, £8; William James Graham. £8; Ivan Albert Jordan. £4; Cicely Florence Emma Pratt, £4; Richard Frederick Shee, £8: Ornoldus Hendrikus Matthew Van Vuuren, £4: Christopher John Watson, costs (no driver’s licence. £3, no warrant of fitness and no warrant of fitness for trailer, convicted and discharged); Brian Wilson. £B. Driving without due care and attention: Anthony Turner Smith, £5: Mabel Alice Greenwood. £8; Catheline Mary Doyle. £5; Denis Leslie Ambler. £8; Norman Leslie Ayers, convicted and discharged, and driver’s licence cancelled for 12 months (no warrant of fitness. convicted and discharged); Russell Hugh Merriman. £3; Colin Lesley Peters, £8 (no warrant of fitness. £2); Alexander Keith Whitfield, £5; James Patrick O'Brien. £l5. and driver’s licence cancelled for 12 months; James Wallace Sloan, £5. No warrant of fitness: John Brooker. £2; Betty Maureen Granger. £1; David Steven

Rlckard, £1 (no warrant of fitness for trailer, £1).

Using motor-vehicle without reasonable consideration: Hapi Paul Ferris, £lO (no warrant of fitness, £3).

Failing to notify disposal of motor-cycle: lan Roger Quayle. £l. Proceeding through stop sign before way was clear: Gilbert Ernest Ornda. £B. No driver’s licence: Keith Malcolm Boyce, costs only.