Appeal ‘Against Nothing’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31316, 11 March 1967, Page 19

Appeal ‘Against Nothing’

An appellant In the Supreme Court yesterday, Paul Robert Harper Mating, a war pensioner, was told by Mr Justice Wilson that he was appealing against nothing.

Mating, who conducted his own case, filed appeals, and presented argument, against conviction and sentence for permitting the use of an unlicensed vehicle, and not having a warrant of fitness for it.

But on the matter of an unlicensed vehicle, his Honour pointed out that the charge against Mating had been dismissed without conviction under section 42 of the Criminal Justice Act.

"You are appealing against nothing—there is no conviction to appeal against," his Honour said—and formally dismissed the appeal. Regarding his conviction for not having a warrant of fitness (for which he was fined £1), Mating submitted that the Commissioner of Transport, having refused him the licence sought for the vehicle—not having accepted It as "a car”—he was unable to go to obtain a warrant of fitness without being stopped for driving an unlicensed vehicle.

His Honour said that this was not a matter for the Supreme Court, and advised Mating to "try the Ombudsman.”

The requirement to obtain a warrant of fitness for a vehicle was absolute, said his Honour. Mating was offering an excuse not recognised by the law, and his appeal must be dismissed.

Before argument began, his Honour told Maling he had no real ground In law for his appeal, on the warrant of fitness charge, and as he had only been fined £l, advised him to “retire gracefully"—but Maling said he preferred to "put his case.”

TRAFFIC APPEALS An appeal by Ryon Maxwell McCutcheon, an Insurance salesman (Mr M. J. Cashmere) against 18 months’ disqualification for driving at Nelson In a potentially dangerous manner was upheld, the disqualification being reduced to the mandatory period of 12 months. "This was a case less, rather than more, serious than usual, and I am quite at a loss to understand why. the magistrate found It necessary to Impose more than the minimum disqualification," his Honour said.

An appeal by Maurice Lennard Charles Burrell-Smith, a radio technician (Mr A. P. C. Tipping) against a month's disqualification from driving for failing to comply with a stop sign was upheld, his Honour saying it was an over-severe

penalty on a man who had driven for 28 years without a conviction. CRIMINAL APPEALS David George Keenan, aged 30, a workman, was unsuccessful on an appeal in person against cumulative sentences, totalling 18 months’ imprisonment, on chargee of false pretences and escaping from lawful custody. On Keenan's traversal of his grounds of appeal, his Honour said he was, in effect, appealing against his conviction on the first charge, but must be refused leave for that.

In view of Keenan's list of previous convictions, the sentences imposed were not inappropriate, said his Honour, dismissing the appeal. An appeal by May Ngahooro, aged 34, a married woman (Mr P. H. T. Alpers) against conviction on a charge of theft <t groceries from a New Brighton shop, was dismissed, bls Honour saying he could find no matters in the evidence which might have led to the magistrate having a reasonable doubt.