Money Missing At Fatal Accident

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30368, 18 February 1964, Page 12

Money Missing At Fatal Accident

(New Zealand Press Association) INVERCARGILL, February 17. Two pound notes and a quantity of silver belonging to a dying man disappeared from the scene of a fatal accident in the Parawa district yesterday morning. A farmer who assisted at the scene believes the money was stolen.

The farmer saw the money lying on the roadside, but when the victim had been placed in an ambulance and passing motorists had dispersed, ,the money was gone. “It’s a poor show and I was pretty annoyed about it,” said the farmer who rendered the assistance, Mr G. Bell, today. “Anyone who would do a thing like that would do anything.” Mr Bell said the worst feature was that the money was not taken from the roadway. After being noticed there it was placed in the front seat of the wrecked car to be handed to the police, and was taken from there while arrangements were being made to get the victim to hospital. Fortunately, an envelope containing £l6l was found

on the road immediately after the accident and this was handed to the police for safe keeping. The man who died in the accident was: Henry Thompson, single, aged 52, a farm labourer. His car left the road south of the Parawa Hotel bridge on the Queenstown-Gore highway, rolled five or six times, and Mr Thompson was thrown through a wire fence, striking his head on an iron standard. Mr Thompson, a guest at the Parawa Hotel, was said to have left the hotel about midnight, and at the time of the accident was heading towards Lumsden. A police inspection indicated that a safety belt in the car had not been used.