Activity puzzles Court

Press, 14 September 1976, Page 4

Activity puzzles Court

PA Auckland A man has been convicted in the Auckland Magistrate’s Court of causing wilful damage with a skateboard. At the end of the hearing, Mr D. G. Sinclair, S.M., told Mark Kenneth Griffin, aged 23, of Wellington, that he was of the opinion skateboards were for juveniles i and that he could not understand why a grown man had been riding about on one at 12.30 in the morning. Griffin had denied causing wilful damage to a taxi on the moring of August 14. He was convicted and fined $75 with witnesses’ expenses of $l3, and was ordered to pay restitution of $32. The Court heard that Griffin had a near-collision with the taxi of the complainant, and had then picked up his skateboard and struck the taxi, causing two dents to the driver’s door. Griffin had run off when spoken to by the complainant but had later been found in scrub by a police dog. Griffin denied deliberately hitting the car. He said the taxi crossed the white line in the road towards him and nearly hit him. He turned to get away, fell off his board, and it apparently struck the car.