Bus converter sentenced

Press, 17 January 1979, Page 5

Bus converter sentenced

An unemployed man who [I unlawfully took a $65,000 < bus, the property of then Christchurch Transport[ | Board, on New Year’s Day,!’ was sentenced to periodic!! detention for four months!! and put on probation for 12 i months by Mr P. J. McA-[| loon, S.M., in the Magis-'t Hate's Court yesterday. Il Murray Aiexander Reid, 1 c aged 23, who admitted the offence, had told several : passengers on the bus that < their ride would be free. He i had then driven the bus I from the Addington Race- < way to the Lion Tavern in 1 Lincoln Road. Before getting out of the t

!bus and heading for the tav- : ern, the defendant had used ;a rag to wipe his finger- ! prints from the steering , ! wheel, Sergeant C. J. < 'Shannahan had told the Magistrate last week. When questioned by the ! police, Reid had said that as ; i there was no driver he thought he might as well drive it. i Counsel (Mr E. H. Par- < sons) said his client was an 1 alcoholic receiving treatment i under the Salvation Army’s < Bridge programme and that : on the day of the offence he had succumbed to drink. i Mr Parsons submitted that i the bus had not been dam- <

aged, no road rules had been broken and that his client had a licence to drive a bus. It was Reid’s first offence a.id one which was out of character. Reid, he said, had stepped on the footplate of the bus ir a state of drunken flamboyance. The Magistrate said the defendant's action was not compatible with the safety of the passengers or of the bus. He said the penalty should reflect the court’s concern at the gravity of the situation. The Magistrate disqualified Reid from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for 12 months.