Magistrates Court False Returns Of Income: 10 Fines Total £400

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30056, 14 February 1963, Page 11

Magistrates Court False Returns Of Income: 10 Fines Total £400

William James Case, aged * n . °r chard «t, was fined £ *°° tv Mr A. P. Blair, S.M., when be was convicted in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday on 10 charges of making false j Ol inc °me between ISbJ and 1961.

„ C “* was represented by Mr B. L. Stanley. Mr I. C. J. Polson prosecuted for the Inland Revenue Department Mr Polson said . that Case •old apples to the Apple and Pear Marketing Board and also made cash .sales at his gate. During the period in question, he had made returns totalling £8515 19s sd, but the department had assessed his income at £11,490 12s Bd. Mr Stanley said that the defendant’s wife had died in child-birth and had left a family of five small children. In addition to looking after his orchard. Case was also acting as housekeeper and mother.

Case had paid about £930 in income tax and social security tax, said Mr Stanley. He had in the past looked after his own returns, but now employed a public accountant.

The Magistrate imposed a £4O fine, with costs, on each of the 10 charges.

ASSAULT CHARGE “If this man is remanded on bail there is no knowing what he might do,” said Sergeant B. D. Read, opposing Mr G. T. Mahon’s application for bail for George John Bryenton, who appeared on charges of assaulting the police and using obscene language at Christchurch on February 12.

“This man went berserk last evening,” said Sergeant Read. “When the police arrived, he was armed with a steel slide from a window and a flick knife, and was in a violent temper. It took six constables and two sergeants to disarm him. He threatened to kill all the police present, and there is some doubt about his mentality.”

Mr Mahon objected to Sergeant Read’s submissions, and the Magistrate granted a request to hear further argument in chambers.

When the case was called again, the Magistrate said he had decided that Bryenton should be remanded in custody.

Bryenton: If I’m in custody, what is going to happen to

my wife* Pm not going to go around belting up people. "In view of the nature of the offence, you will have to remain .in custody.” said the Magistrate, remanding Bryenton to February 15. 109 CONVICTIONS

Pleading guilty to drunkenness, Reuben Charles Whitford Darling, aged 46. was sentenced to 14 days’ im-

prisonment. Conviction on a further charge—of using obscene language •—brought a concurrent sentence of one month’s imprisonment. Darling now has 109 convictions.

Sergeant Read said the police received a complaint from the assistant stationmaster at the Christchurch Railway Station that a drunk man had urinated in the foyer and was staggering around the platform.

Asked by the Magistrate whether he had anything to say. Darling said he had “just come out after doing 12 days” and would like a chance to settle down again. “With your record. you can’t ask for favours,” the Magistrate said. DUMPED RUBBISH Thomas Kingston Coy was fined £7 10s, with costs, on a charge of leaving rubbish in Chattertons road last August. The charge was brought by the Paparua Counity Council. KILLED GAME On a charge erf unlawfully killing wild game at Greenpark on November 18, John Warren Huxford was fined £l2, with costs. NO BUILDING PERMIT Edward Alec Pearcy was fined £3, with costs, on a charge of erecting a building without a permit. Mr G. R. Lascelles prosecuted for the Christchurch City Council. NAME SUPPRESSED A man whose name was suppressed was remanded to February 18 for sentence alter he pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted incest. REMANDED James Tuhikarama, alias Rongo, aged 22, a workman, was remanded to February 20 on a charge of burglary. (Before Messrs D. V. Wilson and L. H. Petrie. Justices of the Peace). FOR TRIAL Clive lan Harris, aged 25. a scrap-metal dealer, charged with theft of £2OOO worth of

railway lines from a disused mill site on the West Coast, was committed for trial at the next sitting of the Supreme Court.

Harris (Mr J. A Brotherton) pleaded not guilty and elected trial by jury. Bail was allowed.

Wilfred Banks, chairman of directors of Jack Brothers, Ltd., sawmillets, said his firm owned a mill at Bell Hill thatt had not been used tor some years. A heap of railway lines stacked there had been used tor bush trains. The site had never been abandoned, and no person had authority to remove any property. Between July 13 and July 17 about £2OOO worth of lines was missing. The value was based on the worth of the lines as such, not as scrap metal.

Edmund Alexander Croft, a cartage contractor, of Stillwater, said that Harris approached him to carry a quantity of lines from the Bell Hill mill site to the railway ait Ngahere. Hie lines were consigned by rail to Woodston, Christchurch. to be delivered to Pacific Scrap Metals. Ltd., Port Hills road. The witness said he carried about 100 tons of steel to Ngahere.

In a statement made to De-tective-Sergeant G. B. Riach on August 11, Harris said he was in a hotel in Greymouth where he met a man who called himself Tom Black. Black said he had some steel rails in the bush tor sale. They had to be shifted because the Forestry Service wanted the area for a scenic reserve. Harris said that Black seemed to know all about the mall and its history, and after some discussion he gave him £75 cash. No receipt was given, nor was any paper signed. Harris said he did not know who owned the mill, but he presumed Black knew all about it.

Detective-Sergeant S. B. McEwen, of Greymouth, said he searched tor a man answering a description given by Harris. He inquired at sawmills and Government departments, and of anybody connected with the timber industry on the West Coast, but was unsuccessful. He also made inquiries at Nelson. It was quite easy to trace anybody on the West Coast.

Principles have no real force except when one is well fed.—Mark Twain.