MAGISTRATE’S COURT Man failed to bank $241 from betting syndicate

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32802, 30 December 1971, Page 13

MAGISTRATE’S COURT Man failed to bank $241 from betting syndicate

“This was a very foolish offence and you could hardly have expected to have got away with it,” Mr H. J. Evans, S.M., said in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday when a defendant pleaded guilty to omitting to pay $241.82 into an account, thereby committing theft. Before him was Frederick Joseph Whear, aged 26, unemployed. He was fined $lOO and ordered to pay restitution of $241.82. Sergeant W. J. Nicholl said Whear was a member of a betting syndicate which received $1 a week from each member. He kept the records of bets and banked the money, but paid in only

$24.10 and failed to bank the rest of the money.

When Whear left his employment as a driver the other members of the syndicate wanted their shares, but the defendant could not be found, said Sergeant Nicholl. When finally traced, Whear said he had taken the money so that he could attend cat shows. On fixing the penalty, the Magistrate said it was Wheal’s first offence. ASSAULT WITH FLAGON A defendant broke a flagon and thrust it In the face of another penon, the Court was told. Lindsay John King, aged 19, a freezing worker, pleaded guilty to assaulting Wayne Stanley Cherry on December 28 at Rangiora. He was fined 850. Sergeant Nicholl said that King had been drinking and was persuaded by the complainant to go to bed and sleep it off. The complainant left the bedroom and when he was in the kitchen King thrust the broken flagon at him. The complainant suffered cuts to the face which required stitching told the Magistrate he could not remember much about the incident and wished to apologise to the complainant. WILFUL DAMAGE A woman whose name was suppressed (Mr W. G. P. Cunlngham) was discharged without conviction under section 42 of the Criminal Justice Aet and ordered to pay 315 prosecution coats and restitution of 35 when she pleaded guilty to a charge of wilful damage and resisting arrest. Sergeant Nicholl said that the defendant was drinking at the complainant’s house in New Brighton when she was asked to leave. She refused and when the complainant attempted to telephone the police she ripped the cord out. When the police arrived the defendant kicked at a constable and had to be handcuffed. It took two policemen and a policewoman to get the defendant Into the police car. The defendant told the police she was mad at the complainant and wanted to pay him back for the things he had done to her. Mr Cuningham said that there was a history of domestic frlendshlp between the defendant and

the complainant and this had broken up. She was a first offender and also suffered a black eye and bruises In the Incident. DANGEROUS SPEED When the police were called to a house in Linwood Avenue a young man rushed out, Jumped into his car and reversed at speed along the road. Sergeant Nicholl said. Warren Michael O’Connell, aged 22, a freezing worker (Mr M. J. Glue), pleaded guilty to driving at a speed which might have been dangerous. He was fined 335 and disqualified for the minimum period of six months. Sergeant Nicholl said that the police were called to a house in Linwood Avenue at 12.30 a.m. on December 29. After O’Connell reversed away he made a right turn on the incorrect side of Tancred Street, switched his lights off and went Into a private driveway to elude the P °Mr''Glue said, that O’Connell was very upset at the time of the incident It would have been Impossible for him to have reversed at speed. The Magistrate: Have you tried It Mr Glue? Counsel said he had not. DISQUALIFIED DRIVING James Leslie Clinton, aged 18, a bushman, was remanded on ball until January 5 when he pleaded guilty to a charge of driving while disqualified.