Sought Costs From Police

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30270, 24 October 1963, Page 8

Sought Costs From Police

(New Zealand Preu Association)

AUCKLAND, Oct. 23. Prosecution witnesses in the case against Weldon George Bailey, aged 43, a company manager, should have been questioned more closely and the matter considered more carefully by the police, said Mr P. B. Temm in the Magistrate's Court art Auckland yesterday. Mir Temm applied for £36 15s costs against the police. Messrs H. M. Israel and R. S. McMillan, Justices of the Peace, who reserved their decision un>ttl today, refused the application. Mir Israel said that because of the importance of the legal submissions by Mr Temm and Inspector G. A. Dalilow, for the police, they would read through a transcripton of the shorthand writer’s notes.

The prosecution failed to establish a prima facie case against Bailey, who was charged with obtaining £lO,OOO from Albert William Meek and Kenneth Edward Blashki, company directors, by false pretences. The charge concerned a glass-tiniting process. Bailey had elected trial by jury.

Mr Temm said that, as far as he knew, costs had never been awarded against the police in Auckland. This was a case where Bailor merited costs.

Mr Temm said that Bailey was discharged after the Bench had heard the prosecution. The defence called no evidence. Most of the evidence came from Meek and Blashki, who could hardly be called un-

biased witnesses. Bailey’s formula was seized by the police even before his surest. It had been shown to his competitors and its value was now “very much in doubt.” Mr Temm added: “In this prosecution had the witnesses concerned been questioned more closely and the matter considered more carefully, perhaps had a more experienced police officer been involved in the case, then the prosecution might not have been brought.” Mr DaUow said it was for the defence to show that the police had acted in bad faith or proceeded without reasonable grounds. “The mere fact that your worships have chosen to discharge Bailey does not automatically mean that this charge should not have been brought,” he said. The case had been ‘‘rather rushed” at the request of the defence.