MAGISTRATE'S COURT Six Months’ Loss Of Licence: Drove Defective Vehicle

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30446, 21 May 1964, Page 8

MAGISTRATE'S COURT Six Months’ Loss Of Licence: Drove Defective Vehicle

“I have never seen a car in ouch poor condition; the front suspension, everything, was gone,” Traffic Officer V. T. D. Brain said to Mr E. S. J. Crutehley, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday. On a charge of having a mechanically defective vehicle, John Albert Beran, who did not appear, was convicted and fined £lO 10s, and his licence was cancelled for six months. On a charge of having no warrant of fitness, he was convicted and fined £l. Traffic Officer Brain said that on February 20, on the Main South road, he signalled to the defendant to stop, as his car was not carrying a warrant of fitness. Beran then reached down inside his car, which slowly stopped. When asked why he had reached down inside his car to stop it, Beran said that the brakes were not working, and that he reached down to change gear, which he did by inserting his hand in a hole in the floor and moving the selectors with his fingers. Beran had driven his car from Kaiapod to Hornby, and was on his way back to his home in Bryndwr when he was stopped, said Traffic Officer Brain.

CARELESS DRIVING On a charge of careless driving, lan McDonald Stark, who did not appear was convicted and fined £6, and his licence was cancelled for three months. Traffic Officer Brain said that on March 20 he had just given the defendant a ticket in Yaldhurst road and was walking back to his motorcycle when he heard a roaring behind him. “I turned in time to see the defendant's V 8 pull straight out from the edge of the road into the line of oncoming traffic, which had to swerve across to the other side of the road to avoid him,” Traffic Officer Brain said. “He treated the second ticket I gave him as a great joke.” FINED £« “A traffic officer is, of course, much more valuable than a hedgehog,” said the Magistrate when fining Richard John Venus, aged 19, £6 on a charge of careless driving. Venus did not appear. Traffic Officer C. S. Hansen said that he was driving along Fendalton road about 11.35 p.m. on November 9 when a car coming towards him swerved towards his side of the road and forced him to swerve.

He chased the car, and Venus told him he had swerved to avoid a hedgehog on the road. FINED £l5 Nell William Alexander, aged 20, a milkman, pleaded not guilty to a charge of driving in a manner. which might have been dangerous. He was convicted and fined £l5, and was disqualified from driving for 18 months. The defendant’s car swung in front of his truck suddenly and forced him off the road near Selwyn on March 1, said Brian William Dawson. Four persons in the car were laughing. In evidence, Alexander said he made an error in judgment when passing the truck. The occupants of his car were laughing at a number of pigs in the rear of the truck. CHARGES DISMISSED A charge against Arthur Robertson of careless driving on the Main North road on January 2 was dismissed. Robertson pleaded not guilty, and was represented by Mr L. G. Holder. Traffic Officer J. Butterfield said he saw the defendant’s car overtaking a truck on a corner. This movement caused several cars to move to the left to avoid the car. Robertson said he attempted the passing movement an eighth of a mile before the corner and completed it about 200 ft from the corner. He passed one vehicle and then was forced to pass a truck which had slowed in front of him. "Although I hold the passing movement happened nearer the corner, if the defendant was forced into the move, this can be regarded as an excuse,” the Magistrate said. A charge against Douglas Gilbert Simes of failing to yield the right of way at a pedestrian crossing in Riccarton road on March 9 was dismissed. Simes (Mr R. P. Thompson) pleaded not guilty. THEFT OF CLOTH

Charged with stealing cloth valued at £1 18s 4d, the property of the New Zealand Railways Department, Raymond David Welsh, aged 43, a workman, was convicted and fined £3, and an order was made for the return of the property. He pleaded guilty. On April 14 Welsh asked the station officer at the Woolston railway station to call a taxi for him, and while he was doing so Welsh took the cloth from a storeroom, said the police prosecutor.

Welsh told the Court that on the day of the offence it was raining heavily, and he went into the storeroom to dry himself with a cloth. He kept the cloth to keep himself dry. He did not know anything about a taxi being called.

In fining Welsh, the Magistrate said he would take into account that Welsh had spent six days in custody. STOLE RADIO

John Louis Healey, aged 21, a workman, pleaded guilty to a charge of theft

of a radio valued at £4O. He was convicted and remanded on bail to May 28 for sentence. Healey could not resist the temptation of a transistor radio, and took it from a hotel at Makikihi on May 2, Sergeant S. W. Byers said. COSTS ONLY “It is refreshing to hear a young man being so frank and honest on the matter,” said the Magistrate in convicting William Richard Sloan, aged 18, on a charge of careless driving. Sloan, who pleaded not guilty, was ordered to pay costs. Traffic Officer f U. T. D. Brain said that on February 26 he saw the defendant turning from Annex road Into Middle Lincoln road. As he turned, the rear of the van broadsided towards the middle of the road, but did not cross the middle line. Sloan, who was represented by Mr A. N. J. Milne, said that the back wheels of his vehicle hit a corrugation on the corner, and the rear bounced, rather than slid, outwards. He was driving rather faster, and had been less careful, than usual.

REMANDED A youth whose name was suppressed was remanded on bail to May 25 on a charge of theft as a servant of £l9O. He was ordered to report daily to the police. On a charge of breaking and entering a shop in Riccarton road on May 16, Kevin Moara Jarden was remanded in custody to May 28. A request for bail made by Mr R. G. Blunt was refused. TRAFFIC OFFENCES In prosecutions brought by the Transport Department convictions were entered and fines imposed as follows: Exceeding 30 miles an hour: Denis Fletcher Stanton, £lO and licence endorsed for three years: Eulaille Marion Kelly, £3 (failing to stop at stop sign, £2): Kenneth John Carter, £5; William Deleotard Main, £4 (pillion passenger without a safety helmet, £2);: Ivan Francis Despa, £4; Keith Reeves, £3; Francis James Vaugh, £3; Henry David Baigent, £4; Clifford Barrow, £4; Colin Eric Belcher, £3; Larry Edward Brown, £4; Gary Edward Bruorton, £4; John McDougall Caithness, £3; Judith Carlta Campbell, £4; John Grove Crawford, £4; John Edward Graham, £4; Allan William J. Hampton, £4; Derek Ernest Harrop, £4 (no warrant of fitness, £1 10s); Warwick Henry Hobbs, £3; Francis Edward Kearney. £3 (no crash helmet, £3); Keith McIntosh Palmer, £4.

Careless driving: John Moffat Peach, £7 and disqualified from driving for six. months, with permission to drive during course of employment; John Raymond Smith, £7. Failing to stop at stop sign: Janet Marion Black, £1 10s; Strath Allen McKnight, £2; John Spencer Pallot, £1 10s; David Ray Palmer, £2; Brian Dudley Simpson, £2; Robert Sinclair, £2; Paul William Child, 10s; Anthony Perkin, £3; Herbert Sour, £3; Margaret Scott Beetham, £2 (exceeded 30 miles an hour, £4).

Failing to give way at pedestrian crossing: Mervyn John Milne, £7, and licence cancelled for two months; Geoffrey Mervyn Wain, £3, and licence cancelled for three months.

Falling to give way to right: Robert William Alexander, £8; Eric Matthew Phelps, £4. Failing to keep to left: Geoffrey Charles Davidson, £5 (no warrant of fitness, £1); Edward Thomas Barnden, £2 10s.

Crossing against traffic lights: Molly Gray, £5; lan Grant, £5; Peter Edward Dunn, £5; Paul Lance Alston, £5.

Driving without reasonable consideration: James Herbert Taylor, £2. Unable to stop In half clear distance: Lawrence Nel! Haughton, £3; Barry Stephen Peters, £5 (defective parking brake, £1; defective service brake, £4); Audrey Erna McCullogh, costs. No warrant of fitness: John Ross Jacobson, £5; William Parks Richardson, £1; Edward John Betts, £3; Cornelius Nicholas Franken, £1; Edward Mervyn Prince, £5; George Mervyn Timms, £2. . „ Permitted use of unlicenced vehicle: Maxwell Dudly Waghorn, £4 (no warrant of fitness, £1); Julian Kenneth Woolridge. £2. Defective parking brake: Stanley James Hutton, £3 (no warrant of fitness, £4). No footrests on motor-cycle: James Smith Newton, costs. Cycling on footpath: Roger Innls McCallum. 10s. Carrying passenger contrary to licence: Ronald Huge Whitmore, £2. Exceeding 20 miles an hour on power-cycle: Edward John Radcliffe, £2. No certificate of fitness: George Chaffey, £lO.

Fallins to display certificate of Stnesi: International Harvester Company, Ltd., £!. _ Vehicle dangerously loaded: Hobart George Wearing, S 3. Exceeding heavy traffic licence: B. J. Hale, Ltd., (5 and £4 (two charges) (exceeding statutory axle weight. £4); William Joseph Glaason, S 3 (exceeding statutory axle weight, £3); Thomas William Prior, £S. No heavy traffic licence: John Gunn, Ltd., S 3 10s (no certificate of fitness, S 3 10s); Gordon William McKenzie, £3. Insufficient lights: Colin Drummond, coats.

(Before Mr K. H. J. Headlfan, S.M.) CLAIM FAILS Judgment was entered for the defendant, S. D. Denham (Mr N. H. Buchanan), in a claim for £OO by Leonard Gordon Edge (Mr A. D. Holland). The claim concerned" a dog belonging to Edge which Denham shot when he allegedly found it worrying his sheep. The Magistrate said ho was satisfied that some damage had been done to the sheep by the dog, even though It had been suggested that the defendant had a habit of shooting dogs which strayed on to his property. However, it was not unreasonable for a farmer, when he saw his sheep being attacked by a dog, to protect his sheep. CAR FIRM’S CLAIM The Magistrate reserved his decision tn a claim by Hutchinson Motors, Ltd. (Mr R. S. Twyneham) against W. Smith (Mr A. Hearn) for £l4 ISs lOd for repairs to a car Smith bought from the firm. Smith counter-claimed £2OO for money he claimed to have spent on the car. The case had previously been adjourned partheard. TRAFFIC OFFENCES Traffic offenders were convicted and fined as follows: Exceeded 30 miles an hour: Dawn Mabel Habklns, £2; Alan James Jamieson, £3; Douglas Thomas Klllick, £4; Alfred Charles Robinson, £4 (no warrant of fitness, £2); John Stock, £4; Brian Charles Truman, £4. No warrant of fitness: William Frederick Heald, £3 (Insecure trailer, £2); Lawrence Bernard Keats, £2. Misled officer as to driver: Desmond John Millward, £5 (no driving licence, £4; permitted use of unlicenced vehicle, £1 10s: no warrant of fitness, £1). Illegal parking: William Edward Palmer, £2. Failed to keep to left: William Wells. £«. Failed to stop at stop sign: Graham Richard Wheal, £4. Crossed against traffic lights: John Kenneth Williams, £7 10s. (Before Messrs H. T. Fuller and C. B. Phillips, Justices of the Peace) COMMITTED FOR TRIAL Denis Manson Wren, aged 37, a machinist, was committed to the Supreme Court for trial on six charges of Indecent assault on females. He pleaded not guilty, and was represented by Mr B. J. Drake. Detective-Constable T. J. C. Joy said that when Wren was arrested he denied the allegations but said he might have bumped into someone accidentally.