Disqualified Driver On Way To Post Office

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30540, 8 September 1964, Page 13

Disqualified Driver On Way To Post Office

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, Sept. 7. The maximum penalty of three months’- imprisonment for driving while disqualified, imposed on a young man in the Nelson Magistrate’s Court, was reduced on appeal to three weeks’ imprisonment by Mr Justice Tompkins in the Supreme Court today. The appellant was Basil Raymond Jones, aged 20, sawmiller. His Honour said that in 1961 Jones had been convicted of driving while intoxicated and his driving licence had been cancelled for three years. In 1962 he was convicted for driving while disqualified for which he was fined £75, admitted to probation for a year and had his disqualification further extended. The present offence had been committed on August 14 last when he was seen driving at Wakefield, near Nelson. He had received notice of a telegram for hjm at the post office and having no telephone, he had used his wife’s car to collect it. Circumstances of the of-

fence showed he had used the car stupidly during what he thought to be an emergency, his Honour said. His Honour said the Criminal Justice Act specified that a person under 21 should not be imprisoned unless there were special circumstances calling for it, and only after a probation officer’s report had been considered. No such report had been called for in the present case. His Honour said he did not think the learned Magistrate should have imposed the maximum sentence. In view of the appellant’s age and the particular circumstances of the offence, his Honour thought he was justified in reducing the prison term to three weeks,. which was the period the appellant had been in custody since his conviction. Mr M. A. Bungay appeared for Jones and Mr J, H. C. Larsen for the Crown.

Special Flights.—A series of special flights cleared the N.A.C. backlog yesterday morning after fog at Whenuapai on Sunday night.— (P-A.)