MAGISTRATE’S COURT Eight months gaol for “thriftless sponger”

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32677, 5 August 1971, Page 15

MAGISTRATE’S COURT Eight months gaol for “thriftless sponger”

Described by the Magistrate as a thriftless drifter and a confidence trickster intending to sponge on the community, Dougall McLean, aged 35, unemployed (Mr A. F. W. Wilding), was sentenced in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday to eight months imprisonment on two charges ot theft.

Mr M. C. Astley, S.M., said he would recommend that McLean, an Australian, be deported when released from prison. When McLean previously appeared for sentence he was remanded to allow inquiries to be made into his Australian background. At that time the Magistrate said that McLean had been sentenced to two months imprisonment in Launceston, Tasmania, in 1969, but that there might be other convictions.

Mr Wilding said yesterday that McLean’s Australian record showed offences only of a minor nature which would not justify deportation. The defendant, he added, came to New Zealand to obtain work in the mines, but had been unsuccessful. He planned to obtain work with a shearing contractor. The Magistrate said that McLean had been thriftless and a drifter since he came to New Zealand in March. He was a confidence trickster with intentions of sponging on the community. “Maybe he has just come here for a vagrant’s holiday,” the Magistrate said. “We don’t want him here.” LICENCE REVOKED On a charge of driving outside the terms of a restricted driver’s licence, Ebb William Sinclair, aged 38, a french polisher (Mr M. J. Glue), was fined $2O and his restricted licence was revoked for six months. Sinclair pleaded not guilty. Traffic Officer R. B. Kench said he stopped the defendant at 8.40 p.m. on June 2 and found he was driving outside the terms of a partial exemption, which allowed him to drive for his Employment. The defendant said he was driving his uncle to the Lyttelton Railway Station.

Mr Glue said that the defendant was driving within the time permitted by his restricted licence. He had been driving to the post office to post a letter relevant to his employment and offered to take his uncle to the railway station, as it was a wet night and the station was dose to the post office.

The Magistrate said that the defendant was not entitled to give his unde a lift in the car. No reference was made to the posting of a letter when the defendant was stopped by the officer. The terms of the permit entitled the defendant to drive his vehicle only for the purposes of his employment.

ASSAULT Rex Littlejohn, aged 44, a drainlayer, was fined $2O on a charge of assault. Littlejohn, who pleaded guilty, was represented by Mr M. J. Glue . Sergeant R. S. Morgan said that the assault occurred on October 8, 1970, when the complainant and another girl went to the home of the complainant’s mother. The defendant told them to leave, and when the complainant refused he carried her to a bedroom and threw her on a bed. The defendant tried to hit the complainant, but she ducked. His explanation for the offence was that the complainant had abused her mother and himself.

Mr Glue said that the offence occurred at a time when the defendant was engaged to the complainant’s mother. The defend? ant rebuked the complainant after she had spoken in a rude and aggressive way to her mother. He told her to leave the room, but she continued to be defiant, so he pushed her against a dismantled bed. There was a degree of provocation in the assault, which was a relatively minor domestic matter. (Before Mr H. J. Evans, S.M.) TWO ACCIDENTS IN HOUR The defendant was involved in two motor accidents within an hour and drove off from both without stopping, the Magistrate was told when Neil Spence, aged 17, an apprentice fitter, pleaded guilty to charges of dangerous driving, careless driving, failing to ascertain injury, and failing to stop after accidents. He was convicted and fined $B5. and disqualified from driving for. 15 months.

Sergeant E. J. Niven said that Spence was the driver of a van in Riccarton Road at 10.45 pan. on April 17, a Saturday. Spence drew alongside a car driven by a friend in an attempt to overtake. and the two cars travelled abreast down Riccarton Road for about 200 yards. While travelling in this way, Spence struck the rear of a stationary car waiting to turn right. The car was pushed across Riccarton Road and on to the footpath of the side street. Spence drove on.

At 11.40 p.m., Spence was in Cathedral Square, travelling in a line of traffic towards the pedestrian crossing by the Government Life Office building. The cars in front of Spence stopped for a pedestrian, but Spence ran

into the car immediately in front. Again he drove off. Spence was found soon afterwards by a police patrol in Latimer Square. He said he did not stop after the accidents because he did not think them serious.

BURGLARY' On a charge of burgling the premises of Aranui Stores, Ltd, on August 3, Gregory John Smith, aged 19, a filterman, was convicted and remanded on bail to August 12 for sentence. He pleaded guilty. Sergeant Niven said that a constable checking shops in Pages Road found Smith standing beside a broken window at 12.30 a.m. He was wearing grey overalls and motor-cycle gauntlets. Smith said he had just broken the window with his gloved fist so that his accomplice could get in to steal cigarettes and money. Sergeant Niven said that inquiries were still being made about the other person involved in the offence, (Before Mr W. F. Brown, S.M.) FALSE PRETENCES “You were playing with danger, as you have previous convictions for the same type of offence.” the Magistrate said to Paul Robert Boby, aged 29. a signwriter (Mr P. N. Duncan), when Boby appeared for sentence on four charges of false pretences. Boby was sentenced to periodic detention for six months, released on probation for one year and a half, and ordered to pay restitution of $34.50. DISQUALIFIED DRIVING Henry Matthew Duncan Huntley, aged 30. a fisherman (Mr W. H. McMenamin), was sentenced to periodic detention for four months and placed on probation for 16 months when he appeared for sentence on a charge of driving while disqualified. He was disqualified from driving for an additional year from January 31, 1973. It was Huntley’s ninth conviction for driving while disqualified. "If you drive while disqualified from now on you can be imprisoned for a maximum of five years,” the Magistrate said. “If there is another incident of driving while disqualified, you can expect a very lengthy term of imprisonment.”

RESERVED DECISION In a reserved decision the Magistrate entered convictions bn charges against Wayne Kevin Wilson, aged 18, a shop assistant

(Mr E. T. Higgins), and Donald Alexander Cameron, aged 18, a cable layer (Mr G. R. Lascelles).

Wilson appeared on a charge of having unlawful sexual intercourse and Cameron on a charge of attempting to have unlawful sexual intercourse. Both had pleaded not guilty. The offences involved a girl aged 14 years 7 months, whose name was suppressed. The Magistrate said that the girl, possibly precocious, went in a car with the defendants, but did not give her full consent to the offences. Wilson was a cold, calculating person, who told the girl that unless she submitted he would not take her home. Both defendants were remanded on ball to August 11 for sentence. They were ordered to be medically examined for training at the detention centre. DANGEROUS SPEED A youth who drove at speeds up to 75 miles an hour in Riccarton Avenue was fined $lOO, disqualified for six months, ana ordered to attend three traffic lectures. Christopher Main, aged 18, an apprentice motor mechanic (Mr W. S. Smith), pleaded guilty to driving at a speed which might have been dangerous on April 18. Traffic Officer D. Hill said that the defendant’s vehicle was closely followed by another vehicle at the speed complained of. It was 10 p.m. and no traffic was overtaken. The driver of the following vehicle had been dealt with in the Children’s Court. Mr Smith said that Main’s vehicle ’ was being urged along by the other vehicle. EXCESSIVE ALCOHOL Robert Malcolm Galvin, aged 39, a machine operator (Mr D. H. Stringer), was fined $75, disqualified for six months, and ordered to pay medical expenses of $10.50 when he pleaded guilty to charges of driving with an excessive alcohol concentration and exceeding 30 miles an hour. Senior Traffic Officer J. McMorran said that Galvin drove at 50 miles an hour in Lyttelton Street, crossing the middle line four times. A test showed 131 milligrams of alcohol to 100 millilitres of blood.

Mr Stringer said that Galvin was in a hurry to get home. He asked for suppression of name because of the effect the charge might have on the lads Galvin trained at Rugby. The request was refused. After the defendant ran into a vehicle which had been involved in an accident he was given a test which showed a concentration of 226 milligrams of alcohol, Senior Traffic Officer McMorran said when lan Russell Ford, aged 40, a driver (Mr D. M. Palmer), pleaded guilty to charges of excessive alcohol concentration and care-

less use in Harewood Road on July 16. Ford was fined $l5O, disqualified for one year, and ordered to pay medical expenses of $10.50.

Mr Palmer said that Ford ran into a car which was straddling the middle line without its lights on. When he got home he drank some gin and it was after this that the blood test was given.

Graham Watson East, aged 21, a carpenter (Mr J. S. Bisph an), was fined $75, disqualified for six months, and ordered to pay medical expenses of $10.50 when he pleaded guilty to charges of excessive alcohol concentration and failing to stop at a stop sign.

Senior Traffic Officer McMorran said that East drove through a stop sign at 35 miles an hour at the junction of Greers Road and Memorial Avenue. A test showed 131 milligrams of alcohol. Mr Bisphan said it was 3.39 a.m. when the offences were committed and East had lost his

W John Shaylor, aged 43, a restaurant proprietor (Mr J. R. Milligan), was fined $75, disqualified for six months, and ordered to pay medical expenses of $10.50 when he pleaded guilty to charges of excessive alcohol concentration and careless use. Shaylor reversed from a parking place outside the Chief Post Office in Cathedral Square and struck, a parked car. said Senior Traffic Officer McMorran. The windows of his car were fogged. A ’ test showed 138 milligrams of alcohol.