Different Scale

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31632, 19 March 1968, Page 26

Different Scale

(N.Z. Press Association)

AUCKLAND, Mar. 18.

A woman, fined $4O for driving at 46 miles an hour in a restricted area by a Magistrate who the same morning fined another driver $25 for 45 miles an hour, had her fine reduced to that amount in the Supreme Court at Auckland today. Mr A. C. Coulam, for Pauline Elizabeth Johnson, submitted that both drivers had been first offenders and that their offences had been committed in very similar circumstances.

Allowing the appeal, Mr Justice Hardie Boys said that Magistrates dealing with a formidable list of traffic offenders must have some sort of norm by which

to grade penalties while endeavouring to treat each case on its merits.

The Magistrates had announced that penalties generally were to be increased and had informed him, as senior judge, of the scale of fines to be imposed. According to this, a fine of up to $25 was to be imposed for speeds up to 45 miles an hour and a fine of up to $5O for 46 to 50 miles an hour.

The appellant’s case came just within.the higher scale. His Honour felt that there had been a rather too rigid application of what should be just a guide. He ordered that a fine of $25 be substituted for the fine of $4O.