FINED £50

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30036, 22 January 1963, Page 6

FINED £50

Driver Loses Licence •‘You have a very bad record, porttoulariy considering your age and I hope you have learned your leeoost because it you have not there are wan and mean* ot dealing with you.” said Mr E. A. Lee. SM., in the Magistrate's

Court yesterday to Patrick Andrew McNally, aged 13. who pleaded guilty to two offences committed at Gisborne on September 13 when he was attending the New ZmAkml fryßintf ctuunpion** ships. McNally was fined £2O and W, Ai4smw*s lieenee we*

cancelled for 12 months on a charge of dangerous driving. He was fined £3O and his licence cancelled for two years on a charge of driving while disqualified. Sergeant B. D. Read said about 4JO am. on September 13 two constables on patrol in Gladstone road saw McNally sitting behind the driver’s wheel of a late model rental car doubleparked outside the Coronation Hotel. There was a large crowd walking around and the traffic was heavy because the New Zealand Boxing championships were held in Gisborne that night. McNally was instructed to perk the vehicle correctly or move off. He drove off at high speed and made a left turn with the tyres screeching. The police patrol gave chase. McNally’s car went through compulsory stop signs at speeds of up to 50 miles an hour with the vehicle weaving and the tyres screaming. In Palmerston road the patrol car was directly behind McNally's car when the red flashing light was put on and the warning device sounded, Sergeant Read said. Approaching the Magistrate’s Court the patrol car attempted to overtake McNally but had to move back as the vehicle driven by McNally went over on to its wrong side.

At a speed of 45 miles an hour the patrol car again attempted to overtake. The police had to travel on the incorrect side at high speed and force McNally off the road. It was found McNally had been drinking but was not sufficiently intoxicated to be arrested. He was very aggressive towards the police. McNally was unco-operative when questioned and gave a false address, said Sergeant Read. It was later ascertained that be was a disqualified driver at the time. McNally had 12 previous convictions. Mr R. G. Blunt, who appeared for the accused, said McNally was the New Zealand amateur welter-weight boxing Champion. He had gone to Gisborne for the cbampionshipe with a friend, who bed hired a car. At the boxing stadium the friend bad collapsed and had been taken away in another car. McNally was left with the rental car cm his hands. McNally was not familiar with the streets in Gisborne and was looking for a motel, Mr Blunt said. This offence had been committed before McNally had been sentenced to one month's imprisonment for breach of probation. That had been a sharp lesson to him as he had never been inside a prison before, Mr Blunt said.