MOTORIST FINED £20

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 208, 29 May 1940, Page 6

MOTORIST FINED £20

Intoxication Charge For being intoxicated in charge of a car in Cuba Street, on May 20, Rolland Manfred Gerbes, builder, aged 48, was fined £2O by Mr. Stout, S.M., in the Magistrates’ Court, Wellington, yesterday. The magistrate also directed that his driving licence be cancelled for a year. Sub-Inspector L. R. Capp prosecuted, and Mr. J. O’Donovan appeared for Gerbes, who pleaded not guilty. Evidence that Gerbes was intoxicated and incapable of driving a car was given by Dr. Hughes Steele, who examined him at the Taranaki Police Station at 6.40 p.m., some three hours and a half, after his arrest. Giving evidence on his own behalf, Gerbes said that he had drunk . a whisky and two beers in the morning. He suffered from neurasthenia, the result of shellshock in the last war. He also had a war wound to his leg which affected his walking. Dr J. Collins, who examined Gerbes at 9.30 p.m. on May 20, said that he found no evidence of drunkenness and was satisfied that Gerbes’s condition was due to a “nerve storm.” He was a chronic neurasthenic. In convicting Gerbes, Mr. Stout said there seemed to be no doubt that he had been under the influence of liquor. Apparently his neurasthenia made him more easily affected by liquor and for that reason he should leave it alone.