SUPREME COURT Man Denies Charge Of Driving While Disqualified

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31680, 16 May 1968, Page 7

SUPREME COURT Man Denies Charge Of Driving While Disqualified

A 37-year-old motor mechanic, Walter Arthur Burgess—whom a traffic sergeant said he had seen drive out of the Puoenix Hotel yard and west down the Main North Road on the night of December 7—stood trial by jury in the Supreme Court yesterday afternoon and pleaded not guilty on a charge of driving while disqualified, brought by the Christchurch City Council traffic department. Mr J. G. Leggat, who prosecuted, told the jury that Burgess (Mr R. F. B. Perry) admitted, for the purposes of trial, that he had been disqualified from driving as at December 7 so that the crux of the case would be the proof of Burgess’s identification.

The trial, before Mr Justice Macarthur, will continue this morning, when counsel will address the jury, and his Honour will sum up, the defence having elected not to call evidence. Traffic Sergeant’s Evidence Traffic Sergeant I. W. McLauchlan gave evidence that after seeing Burgess’s car in the Phoenix Hotel car park about l r p.m. on December 7 he watched it and saw first Mrs Burgess and later a man —whom he was “almost certain’’ was Burgess—enter the driver’s door—and three men enter the rear doors—and the car then drive out on to the street It gave way to witness’s patrol car as it did so, so that witness had a clear view, in his headlights, that Burgess was the driver. The patrol car followed this car along the Main North Road to the Papanui roundabout where it stopped—the patrol car behind it—at a

(pedestrian crossing. Witness ran to the driver's door and found Burgess sitting behind the wheel. On the seat between Burgess and his wife was a large black Labrador dog. When told he would be reported for driving while disqualified, Burgess had said: “I wasn't driving, the cook was” —and indicated his wife. In the course of a long cross-examination —relative to Traffic Sergeant McLauchlan’s observations —Mr Perry asked: “Did you ask Burgess why he had got into the driver’s seat?” Witness: I questioned him as to why he had been driving. His reply, in his exact words, was that “he wasn't driving, the cook was.” Identification Confirmed Traffi- Officer R. J. Dellow,

who was with Traffic Sergeant McLauchlan, confirmed the latter's identification of Burgess as the driver of the car which they watched come out of the Phoenix Hotel yard. “Our headlights were on, and I had a good view. The driver was the accused. He was known to me," witness said. When Traffic Sergeant McLauchlan jumped from the patrol car and approached the one in front, witness followed and found Burgess behind the wheel, with the black Labrador dog between Burgess and his wife. Under cross-examination, witness said he was certain that Burgess had driven out of the hotel yard. After Mr Perry had said he would call no evidence for the defence, the trial was adjourned to this morning.