Entertainer Fined £45

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31112, 15 July 1966, Page 7

Entertainer Fined £45

(New Zealand Pren AtioclaHon)

NAPIER, July 13, “I’m a big-time entertainer, earning £5O a day. You are just a small-time copper,” an Auckland pop singer told a constable when being questioned about a traffic accident, the Napier Magistrate’s Court was told today. The singer. Bill Richard Hewitt, aged 25, of Papatoetoe, was appearing before Mr W. K. L. DougalL S.M., on charges of carelessly using a car and of making a false statement to the police on June 11. Hewitt was convicted on both charges after pleading not guilty to the car charge and guilty to the other. He was fined £25 and disqualified from driving for one year on the first charge, and fined £2O on the second.

Senior-Sergeant R. D. L. Jones said that at 5 a.m. on June U a rental car struck a traffic island at an

intersection in Napier. The impact tore the fropt wheel from the car and the car slewed across the island, blocking traffic. The driver and his passenger hurriedly left the scene, leaving the car in the middle of the road. Hewitt admitted being the driver. He said he enjoyed "having the police on” and that if it had not been for the co-opera-tion of his friends “he would have left the cops for dead.” Mr J. D. Donovan, for Hewitt, said his client had arrived from Auckland late the, night before to perform at a cabaret He had returned home tired and had had liquor with his sister and fiancee. “His comments to the police were more in the nature of a ragging session. He had had the rag thrown at him and he was throwing it back,” Mr Donovan said.