Man on 67 charges

Press, 10 February 1981, Page 7

Man on 67 charges

An unemployed man, aged 41, who faces 66 charges of using a Visa card to obtain goods and services to a total value of more than $3OOO, was remanded to February 23 when he appeared before Judge Fraser in the District Court yesterday. No pleas were entered by Brian Emmett Harold who was remanded in custody. Harold faces 66 charges of using a Visa card to obtain a pecuniary advantage, and one charge of false pretence. By his alleged use of the credit car, the defendant obtained clothing, jewellery, air travel, saunas and massages, and accommodation and meals. ASSAULT CHARGE Ronnie Allan Blackburn, aged 20, a machinist, was remanded without plea to February 16 on a charge of assault and another of driving while disqualified.Blackburn is charged with assaulting a young woman in a house in River Road last Friday. The driving-while-dis-qualified charge occurred the same day.

Bail was opposed by Sergeant G. C. Jones. The Judge set bail at $lOOO, with a surety of the same amount, and the defendant was ordered to report daily to the police. ABDUCTION CHARGE A man, aged 30, charged with abducting a boy, aged 2 years two months, was remanded to March 13 for the taking of depositions. Leo Alexander Keen, unemployed, (Mr D. J. Taffs) is alleged to have committed the offence on Saturday. Bail was set at $2OOO and Keen was ordered to report daily to the police. NINE MONTHS JAIL A painter, David Michael Austin, aged 22, who had earlier been convicted of assaulting a traffic officer, was sentenced to nine months imprisonment fol-

lowed by 12 months probation. Austin had admitted punching a traffic officer on the chin on October 20 last year. The Judge said Austin had a previous record of convictions for traffic offences and had also been convicted for an assault on a traffic officer in 1978. $250 FINE An unemployed girl, aged 18, who had earlier been convicted of possessing opium and cultivaitng cannabis, was fined a total of $250 on the two charges. Lee Anne Bradbury admitted responsibility for the 14 cannabis plants and two opium poppies found in the rear garden of the house she shared in Christchurch. 'She was fined $l5O for possession of opium and $lOO for cultivation of cannabis.