Magistrate's Court Facts ‘frightening’ in charge of disqualified driving

Press, 4 July 1978, Page 4

Magistrate's Court Facts ‘frightening’ in charge of disqualified driving

i Penodic detention of five; months was imposed on Tito | Lui Tuitaupe, aged 25, a 'labourer, when he appeared, I for sentence before Mr P. J.I iMcAloon, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday' I on two traffic charges. Tuitaupe, a boxer of some! distinction, was convicted' last week of driving while! disqualified and of causing| bodily injury to Cyril Adams! by driving in a manner' which was dangerous. Bothj offences were committed on! June 10. I The Court heard that the I defendant had panicked after colliding with a motoricvclist. Mr Adams, in Ferry Road. He had stonped, made 1 a brief check of the injuries suffered by Mr Adams, and' had then made off. Consumption of liquor) ; earlier in the day had made; 'him less attentive. I The summary of facts was I frightening, said the Magistrate. After the collision, the I defendant had driven off i with his lights off. He had | hit a stationary bicycle, and ■ knocked over a traffic-light I standard — and all this had taken place while he was 'disqualified from driving. I In addition to periodic detention, Tuitaupe was disI qualified from holding or ob[taining a driver’s licence for 1 18 months, put or probation for 12 months, and was ordered to undertake such treatment for alcoholism as was directed by his probation officer. “If you drive again while

■ disqualified you will be in >; big trouble,” said the Magistrate. l ; DEFERRED SENTENCE ,'i “If you do not take this last chance of mending your I ways, Borstal training will be inevitable," said the .| Magistrate to Scott Owen ■; McDougall, when the latter '■was given a 12-month I!deferred sentence. ! The defendant, who was j convicted on a charge of unII lawfully entering the premises of the Christchurch Gas 'Company, Ltd, in Cathedral ‘ i Square, had committed the offence only two days after .iis las* appearance in court, , said the Magistrate. ' The defendant was warned j| by the Magistrate that it 'was the third time the (courts had extended leniency ' to him and that this could Mnot continue. Counsel (Mr M. J, i Knowles) admitted that his . client’s behaviour was • “deplorable” but said he suf- ' fered from a “serious” disi ease, of which his anti-social I behaviour was a result. A fortnight ago, Mr J. S. 1 Bisphan, S.M., had agreed to I the placement of rhe defendant with one of the Redemp- • torist Fathers and at the end ■ of the first week it appeared ■ that the defendant was settl- ■ ing in, said Mr Knowles. i He said that if the defendant was given a custodial i sentence, it was likely he would be before the courts again. He urged that the defendant be given a last chance with the Redemptor-

ists while supervision and therapy were still available. TOOK CAR “At 17, you are far too young to have as many convictions as you have,” the Magistrate told Eli Tea Hou Tainui. unemployed, when he appeared for sentence on a charge of burglary and another of unlawfully taking a motor vehicle on June 18. Counsel (Mr E. H. Parsons) said the two charges were part of the same escapade that had developed in the course of an evening’s drinking. He said that the defendant had not broken into the carsales yard nor had he driven the car out of the yard, although he had driven it at some stage of its journey to the West Coast. The car was found over a bank at Otira, but Mr Parsons said the damage to the car had not been intentional. It had run off the road in icy road conditions. Just because the defendant had insufficient money to return to the West Coast was no reason for his having taken the car, the Magistrate said.

He put the defendant on probation for a year, ordered him to do 150 hours of community work, and to live and work as directed by his probation officer. TOOK MOTOR-CYCLE

A youth convicted last week of unlawfully taking a $2OO Japanese motor-cycle was fined $l5O and

(ordered to pay $lOO in compensation to the complainant. He is Bryce Russell Campbell, aged 17, an apprentice carpenter, wlo was told by the Magistrate, that his act of taking the motorcycle, which had been left on a beach with the result that it had been covered by the tide, had been “completely selfish.”

The machine had been a "write-off,” the Magistrate said. He told the defendant to make sure he left other people’s property alone in future.