MAGISTRATE’S COURT Nine Months Gaol, Five Years Disqualification Imposed

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32381, 21 August 1970, Page 4

MAGISTRATE’S COURT Nine Months Gaol, Five Years Disqualification Imposed

Nine months imprisonment and disqualification from driving for five years were imposed on Gordon Ray Brewer, aged 24, a freezing worker, when he appeared before Mr H. J. Evans, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday on a charge of causing death. Brewer last week pleaded guilty to a charge of driving in Ferry Road in a dangerous manner and causing the death of Alexander Ward on March 12. He was represented by Mr J. G. Leggat. Mr Leggat said Brewer was an immature person in spite of his age. There was a history of ill health, injury and social uncertainty. When he was 14 he suffered a head injury after diving into a pool and he also sustained injuries in the accident from which the charge arose.

The island in the middle of the road near the Ferrymead Bridge was a precipitating factor in Brewer’s accident, said Mr Leggat. The shock of the accident had lingered with Brewer and had had quite a profound effect on him.

The Magistrate said that the facts before the Court disclosed what had to be regarded as a very serious case. Brewer had been driving his grossly overloaded car at a speed estimated by three independent witnesses to be in excess of 50 miles an hour. The excessive speed and carelessness in negotiating the well-lighted bridge were the cause of the accident, said the Magistrate. Imprisonment was the only appropriate penalty and he would make allowance for fact that it was Brewer’s first conviction, his personality problems and the fact that he had already suffered physically and financially, said the Magistrate.

FALSE PRETENCES David George Bennett, aged 24, a fitter welder, and Glorya Ann Bennett, aged 21, a housewife, both represented by Mr G. R. Lascelles, were convicted and remanded on bail to August 28 for sentence when they pleaded guilty to several charges of false pretences. They both pleaded guilty to 10 joint charges of false pretences and David Bennett pleaded guilty to another five charges of false pretences. The offences occurred in Auckland, Huntly, Hamilton and Wellington between February 22

and March 3, 1967, and involved obtaining goods and cash with valueless cheques. Sergeant W. W. Maloney said that in February and March of 1967, the defendants, who were not then married, travelled about the North island with another youth. They opened a joint cheque account with a deposit of £6 in an Auckland bank and subsequently issued 15 cheques. The defendants went to Australia from Wellington and had only just returned. They now had three children. They obtained goods and cash worth 5652 with the cheques

The Magistrate asked for a statement from the manager of the bank which issued a cheque book to the defendants to be provided before they were sentenced. THEFT ADMITTED t Charged with stealing goods worth $Bl from Ronald Caiman Harkness at Wanganui on July 1, Robert John Craig, aged 21, a workman, was convicted and remanded on bail to August 28 for sentence. He pleaded guilty. Craig lived with the complainant in Wanganui until June when he left taking several items of the complainant's property with him, said Sergeant Maloney. The police later found a car abandoned in Picton and it contained some of the stolen property. It was ascertained that the car belonged to Craig. Craig was found in Christchurch and he admitted stealing the property. He was living at Sunnyside Hospital as a voluntary patient. PROBATION. FINES A young man who was described by his counsel as having considerable potential was placed on probation for one year and fined a total of $6O when he appeared for sentence for theft and for possessing the prescription poison, tetracycline. David James Hurrell, aged 21, a driver (Mr G. R. Lascelles), was fined $3O on each charge. Mr Lascelles said that Hurrell had stolen the poison from a pharmacist because he believed it would help give relief from an ailment he was suffering. The offences were unpremeditated and it seemed that the defendant was an intelligent, pleasant and capable youth who had got into bad company. Dennis Bernard Moller, aged 23, a chef, who was appearing for sentence for theft as a servant and the possession of the poison librium was also admitted to probation. He was fined sloo—BBo for the theft and $4O

for possessing the poison. He was represented by Mr Lascelles. The theft involved the taking of sheets and pillow-cases from a hotel where the defendant had worked. Sentencing Moller the Magistrate said that a term of imprisonment had been considered, especially in view of the ant s past record, notably a case of assault on a woman for which he had been fined $lOO. However because of counsel’s submissions and particularly because the defendant had been offered a responsible job in Timaru even though his future employer knew of the present case, this would be moderated. Moller would have to pay his fines within two weeks.

DEFERRED SENTENCE A woman, whose name was suppressed (Mr G. R. Lascelles) was ordered to come up for sentence within one year if called upon when she appeared for sen- ? n a ch^ r « e stealing groceries worth $B.ll from a supermarket on July 9. Mr Lascelles said the defendant had had a very difficult h2 e J n « very res Pect during H ? r ? la I rriage had been little short of disastrous. t busbands could have treated their wives so badly so ® arly in u a marriage. Not only has he beaten his wife but his conduct has been such that their landlords have asked them to leave the property.” He said the defendant acted completely out of character and was unlikely to offend again. ASKED TO BE ARRESTED w - ho into the P°Hce station and asked to be arrested while af[fSJ® py liquor struggled violently, kicked a constable in the thigh, and damaged his tie beyo,™* re P air . Sergeant Maloney told the Court. ...H® sa id John Andrew Hemi Wallace, aged 23, a waterside worker, told the police he would go home and assault his wife if he was not arrested. Asked by the Magistrate why ne had committed the offences ; he said: “I had too much to drink.” He was fined $lO on the assault charge and convicted and discharged on the charges of trespassing in the police station and resisting arrest. ASSAULTED WOMAN Albert Eric Lye, aged 23, a truck driver, was convicted and fined $25 when he pleaded guilty tO , a charge of assaulting Laurelle Carolyn Carson on August Sergeant Maloney said an argument developed between the complainant and the defendant during a party at a St Asaph Street house. The defendant

I poured beer over her then hit i her on the head with the bottle. FALSE FIRE CALL A man who made a fictitious emergency fire call was convicted and ordered to 1 pay restitution of $2O to the fire brigade. Sergeant Maloney said the defendant, Kenneth Martin Christie, aged 21, an unemployed spray painter, dialled the emergency telephone number and called the fire brigade to a ficti* : tious fire on July 19, at 166 King Street. Two appliances attended. STOLE WHEEL On a charge of stealing a wheel worth $5O at Auckland on ' June 13, Paul Waata Hohepa, ■ aged 26, a driver, was convicted and fined $3O. He pleaded guilty. Sergeant Maloney said the defendant told the police he took i the wheel as a joke. He left it 1 in Wellington because he did r not know what to do with it. i SHOP THEFT I A woman, whose name was I suppressed (Mr S. R. Mating), pleaded guilty to a charge of . stealing cigarettes worth 32c > from a shop on August 12. She I was convicted and fined $2O , and ordered to pay restitution. [ TOOK CAR OWcn Len Maraki, aged 18, un--1 employed, pleaded guilty to a i charge of unlawfully taking a i car. He was convicted and remanded in custody to August • 28 for sentence. Sergeant Maloney said daml age amounting to $l2O was done ’ to the car while it was being driven about the city. REMANDED TO SUNNYSIDE Dean Kenneth Mushet, aged . 19, an unemployed packer (Mr . G. K. Panckhurst), who was to , have been sentenced on two . charges of theft and two . charges of burglary, was re- . manded to Sunnyside Hospital till August 24 at the request of ' counsel. I MISCELLANEOUS OFFENCES In miscellaneous prosecutions I convictions were entered and i fines imposed as follows, with I costs of $5 in each case: i Found in hotel after hours: • John Downs Roberts, $5; Gral ham George Taylor, $5. Supplied liquor to person unl der age: Tony Maurice Perreau, t $l5; Trevor Keith Taylor, $l5. Exceeded 30 miles an hour: 1 Francis Paul Clark, $7. r Failed to give way: Robert . Edward Cole, $l5; Garth Ken- . neth Owen, $2O; Bevan Gareth . John White, disqualified for l three months. ) Excessive alcohol concentra- . lion: Barry Wayne White, M 0 . and disqualified for one year. f Possessed unregistered rifle: i Arthur Robert Hines, $lO. 1 (Before Mr P. L. Molineaux, S.M.) FINED $lOO Kelvin Francis Lennon, aged 19, an apprentice car painter » (Mr M. J. Glue), was convicted

and fined $lOO and disqualified for 18 months on a charge of driving with an excessive concentration of alcohol in his blood. He pleaded not guilty. Traffic Officer B. R. Wood said that at 10.50 p.m. on June 12 he saw a car travel at an unreasonably slow speed—about three miles an hour —from High Street on to Colombo Street. This action inconvenienced three other vehicles which consequently missed the green phase of the lights. Witness said he stopped the defendant’s car in Cathedral Square. When Lennon alighted from his car he was unsteady on, his feet, his eyes were inflamed, and his breath smelt of liquor. After two breath tests had proved positive, a blood test was taken, which later revealed a blood-alcohol level of 212 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. DROVE DANGEROUSLY Donald Findlay Brocket, aged 20, a labourer, was convicted on three traffic charges and fined a total of $lO5, and disqualified for 18 months. Brocket pleaded not guilty to a charge of driving at a danSerous speed in Pages Road on arch 22. On this charge he was fined M 0 and disqualified for 12 months. On a charge of obstructing a traffic officer, to which he pleaded guilty, he was fined $25; and on a charge of not having a driver’s licence, to which he also pleaded guilty, he was fined $2O and disqualified for six months. FINED $l2O "You would normally go to prison for this with your previous convictions, but because of your age and the general tenor of the probation report and counsel’s observations in mitigation, I accept that imprisonment is not the most appropriate way of dealing with you,” the Magistrate told Wayne Albert Tapper. Tapper, aged 19, a driller (Mr J. B. Macintosh), was fined $l2O, disqualified for 12 months, and released on probation for 18 months, when he appeared for sentence on a charge of riding a motor-cycle while disqualified. TRAFFIC CHARGES In defended traffic prosecutions brought by the Ministry of Transport, convictions were entered and fines were imposed as follows, with Court costs $5 on each charge: Failed to ascertain if anyone injured after an accident: Robert MCCullock Donaldson, $25. Exceeded 30 m.p.h.: Rhona Ethel Hancock, costs only. (Before Mr W. F. Brown, S.M.) FINED $lO Raymond Leo Carr, a carpark attendant, was fined $lO for failing to dip his headlights. A charge of exceeding the conditions of his driver’s licence to which he pleaded not guilty was dismissed. He was represented by Mr J. M. Wilson.