BRIBED POLICEMAN

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31223, 22 November 1966, Page 23

BRIBED POLICEMAN

CV Z. Press Association)

AUCKLAND, Nov. 18. Giving a £99 bribe to a policeman cost an Australian publisher a total of £76 10s when he appeared before Mr A. A. Coates, S.M., today.

The Magistrate, in fining Allan Edward D’Arcv, aged 61. ordered that the £75 fine and the £1 10s costs be paid out of the £99 now held by the police and that the £22 10s balance be refunded to I D’Arcy. D'Arcy, represented by Mr R. L. Maclaren, admitted a charge of offering DetectiveSergeant J. Butterworth a £99 bribe on Monday. Sergeant D. E. Henderson said D’Arcy was seen by the police on October 24. D’Arcy was a prohibited immigrant. He had admitted convictions In Australia.

D’Arcy later got in touch with the detective-sergeant and a meeting was arranged in the city on October 28, at which D'Arcy handed over £99 on condition that arrangements be made for him to Itay on in the country. Mr Maclaren said a man Sailed Claude Austin had coma to New Zealand earlier this year to promote the publication of decimal currency readj-reckoners. With the sanction of the Decimal Currency Board, Austin set up a firm called Auckland Decimal Currency Publications, Ltd. It was found later that Austin fell into the category of a prohibited immigrant and he had to leave the country. Previcusly orders had been taken for their publication, and D’Arcy arrived in Auckland in July to help Austin. When tie police discovered convictions against him in

Australia, D'Arcy was fulfilling orders already received. 1 He thought his last convic- < tlon. 31 years ago. did not i class him as a prohbited im- I migrant. I While on bail for offering s the bribe, D’Arcy managed to complete the publication and 1 fill his orders.

In offering the bribe, D'Arcy had wanted only to delay his leaving the country. He had cleared his obligations and anticipated leaving for his home in Brisbane soon. The Magistrate agreed it was a case where imprisonment should not be imposed.