Driver’s act ‘despicable’

Press, 25 September 1987, Page 13

Driver’s act ‘despicable’

This was a despicable act to persuade another person to falsely accept responsibility for something the accused had done, said Mr Justice Quilliam in the High Court yesterday. John Frederick Prangnell, aged 31, unemployed, was sentenced to nine months periodic detention on charges of wilfully attempting to defeat

the course of justice by providing false information to a traffic officer and driving while disqualified.

Prangnell’s driving licence was cancelled for a year after his present period of disqualification expired. This was his ninth conviction for driving while disqualified.

The police statement

said that on March 26, 1986, about 10.50 p.m., Prangnell was driving north on Hills Road when he lost control and the car rolled. Prangnell denied to a traffic officer that he was the driver, who he said had run off across the paddocks. He persuaded a person to go to the Ministry of Transport and claim that he was the

driver. When that person was charged he told the truth and the charges were withdrawn. Interviewed by the police, Prangnell admitted that he was the driver of the car when it was wrecked, and that he was disqualified. He said once he told lies to the traffic officer he had to keep going.