MAGISTRATE’S COURT Driver Disqualified For 18 Months, fined £25

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30560, 1 October 1964, Page 10

MAGISTRATE’S COURT Driver Disqualified For 18 Months, fined £25

On a charge of driving in a dangerous manner John Sofe Papalli was fined £2O. and his driver’s licence was cancelled for 18 months, by Mr E. S. J. Crutchley, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Papalii was also fined £5 for having no driver’s licence. Jock Buick said that he was driving north on the Main South road near Ashburton on March 31 in a truck towing a caravan when a car driven by Papalli came up very fast from the rear and passed on a blind spot on a bridge approach. A few minutes later he saw Papalli’s car parked on the side of the road. The car then passed his vehicle again and cut across inches in front of the truck. Papalli then pulled over to the right to prevent a car from passing him.

Papalli stopped on the roadside and then passed the witness a third time in the face of oncoming traffic, the witness having to pull into the shingle to avoid a collision. Papalli then drove straight at an approaching car, which had to swerve to the verge of the road. Traffic Officer J. E. L. Hume, of the Transport Department, said that he interviewed Papalli, who was a Samoan of not very high intelligence. He had difficulty in communicating with him. Papalli admitted driving to and from Timaru without a licence, and said that he had done very little driving in New Zealand. He had been in this country about two years. ASSAULTED CONSTABLE Mervyn Anthony Rich, aged 21, a workman, pleaded not guilty to a charge of assaulting a police constable in the execution of his duty, but offered no defence. He was convicted and remanded to October 6. He was dealt with similarly on a charge of breach of probation, to which he pleaded guilty. Constable Noel Alexander Spiers said that he woke Rich in his cell at the Central Police Station and asked him to clean it. Rich refused to get up. When the witness pulled the blankets off him he lashed but with his feet and then struck the witness with his fist, injuring an eye. HALYARD THEFT Kenneth Campbell, aged 56, a seaman, was fined £lO on a charge of stealing 86 yards of signal halyard valued at £4 10s on September 29. He pleaded guilty. Sergeant B. D. Read said that Campbell, a member of the crew of the Gothic, sold the rope to a man he did not know. (Before Mr E. A. Lee, S.M.) CHARGE DISMISSED A charge of receiving 86 yards of rope, against Ormond Errington Merrie, aged 52, a railway traffic assistant (Mr W. A. Wilson), was dismissed. Merrie at first pleaded guilty before Mr E. S. J. Crutchley, but after the Magistrate had questioned him the case was stood down while the accused sought legal advice, as a result of which he reversed his plea. The Magistrate, in the later hearing, said that Merrie had acted frankly throughout. Merrie said that he went aboard the Gothic to obtain some written-off rope, but was sold some newer rope for £2 by the ship’s lamp-trim-mer. He would not have taken the rope if he had known it was stolen. He did not know the lamp-trimmer had no authority to dispose of the rope. DISQUALIFIED DRIVERS Pleading guilty to a charge of driving while disqualified on August 6, Robert Dennis

Ball, aged 20 (Mr R. J. Allan) was convicted and remanded to October 7 for sentence. Bail was renewed. Pleading guilty to a similar charge, Panayiotis Christofi, alias Peter Christopher (Mr W. A. Wilson), was convicted and remanded on bail to October 5. The court was told that another similar charge against him would be heard on October 5. and he had already been once convicted of driving while disqualified. FAILED TO KEEP LEFT Thomas Henry Keats pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to keep to the left and was fined £lO and disqualified from driving for three months. CHARGE DISMISSED A charge of double parking, against James Kenneth Henderson, was dismissed. The Magistrate held that Henderson, who had stopped to deliver goods in Riccarlon road, was there for less than five minutes, and was therefore not parked. OTHER TRAFFIC CASES On other traffic charges brought by the Transport Department, fines were imposed as follows: No warrant of fitness: Rex Campbell, £3; Colin Cornelius O'Brien, £5; Kevin Alphonsus O'Connor £2 (failed to produce driver's licence, £2); Capp Rio. £2 (no driver's licence, £lO and disqualified for six months); John Francis Smith. £1; Herbert Airey, £2 (no driver’s licence, £5); James Lewis Olds, £3 (failed to produce driver's licence, £2): Arnold Jukes Trotter, £3 (failed to produce driver's licence, £2); John Basil Wilson, £2 (failed to produce driver's licence, £2): Russel Kains, costs; Peter Noel Lee. £1 (insufficient lights, £5); Brian Edmond Wylie, £2. No driver's licence: Mona Adella Brown, £2; Robert Cowley Clarke, £5; Cornelius Jansen, £5; Julia Ann Kingston. £5; Marcus Raymond Marshall, £5 (no warrant of fitness, £1); Ann Isabella Sutherland. £5 mo warrant of fitness, £1); Keith Allan Dawson, £5: Cyril Eden. £lO.

Exceeding 30 miles an hour: Colin Lawrence Austin. £1 10s; Gary Dion Christie, £3; John Russel Bacon, £3; Ronald Frederick Needham, £4; Jim Williams, £5; John Stanley Cox, £5 (no safety helmet. £2). Exceeding temporary speed limit: Lloyd Derrick Ashton, £3. Speed too great to stop in half clear road: Victor James Gardiner, £4. Falling to stop at stop sign: Howard John Williamson, £2; Frederick Furrell Anderson, £3; Anthony Joseph De Vries, £2; Murray James Mackay, £3 (no warrant of fitness, £2); Henry Gerrold Brokenshire, £3. Exceeding axle weight: John Brightling, Ltd., £5: Bernard Ryan, £5 (exceeding heavy traffic licence. £5, exceeding certificate of fitness for goods service vehicle, £5). No certificate •of fitness: Joseph William Groom, £5: Walter James Baker, Ltd., £lO (no brakes on trailer over two tons, £10). Permitting use of unlicensed vehicle: George Francis Pope, £3 (no warrant of fitness, two charges, £3 and £1); James Mayo, £7 (no warrant of fitness, £1). Exceeding 53 miles an hour: Bryan Eric Treleaven, £5. Carrying pillion passenger contrary to licence: Nigel Gavin Hoare, £2. Trailer not safely secured to car: Lincoln Gregory Mitchell, Vehicle dangerously loaded: Harry Aldridge, £3. Failing to dip: Ronald Alfred Aubrey, £3. Careless driving: Clifford Henry Cook, £B. No light on bicycle: Patrick Sarsfleld Kortegast, £2. Crossing against traffic lights: John Harvey Phillips, £B. Licence defaced: Maurice Frederick White, IDs. Vehicle parked without lights: Waddell Construction Company, Ltd., £5. (Before Messrs S. F. Marshall and A. H. Dale, Justices of the Peace) COMMITTED FOR TRIAL On five charges of false pretences between December 13 and December 31 last, involving property valued at £B5 3s 2d. Pauline Margaret Park, aged 29 (Mr C. B. Atkinson), was committed to the Supreme Court for trial. She pleaded not guilty. Ball was allowed. Frederick Walker Bankier, credit manager of T. Armstrong and Company, Ltd., Olga Alice Elder, assistant credit manager of Beath and Company, Ltd., and Doris Morwena Keenan, a credit clerk employed by Fashion House, Ltd., said they Issued credit accounts and pay-as-you-wear accounts to a woman who gave her name as Margaret Horgan. Goods valued at £B5 3s 2d were purchased, but no payments had been made. Margaret Horgan said that she shared a flat with the accused during December. The accused obtained new clothing at this period, although she was not working. She did not give the accused permission to open accounts In her name. Detective B. J. Preston said he Interviewed the accused on July 21. She admitted that she had opened the accounts, and said she did not think it mattered what name she used. She intended to pay for the articles Asking for the accused to be discharged, Mr Atkinson said the prosecution had tailed to prove that the accused intended the defraud, or that the firms had been Induced to give credit by false pretences.