A STOLEN OVERCOAT

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 10, 13 January 1933, Page 9

A STOLEN OVERCOAT

"LIVING BEYOND HIS MEANS"

Notwithstanding? that he was stated to be the heir to a considerable amount of money, living beyond his means was the cause o£ William George Byers, aged 22, appearing at the Magistrate's Court to-day on a charge of stealing an overcoat valued at £5. On the night o£ 14th November, said Detective-Sergeant Reveli, the accused went to a dance at Ngaio. During the evening he took an overcoat and threw it out of a window. Later, when everyone had left the ha 11,., ho returned and collected the overcoat. Since then he had worn it on -several occasions. . ' Counsel for the accused, Mi-. R. Hurdio Boys, said that until October last the accused had occupied a fairly good position in a city office. His employment terminated during that month, and since then ho had foolishly been living beyond his means in order to maintain the standard of .living ho had been ,used to. He had sold a quantity of his clothing, and this resulted in the taking of the overcoat. The accused said' counsel, had-really no need to do' this as he could haye confided in his guardian. He was, as a mattei; of fact, the heir to a considerable sum of money The presiding Justices, Messrs. E. m' Wyhe and H. H, Price, fined the accused £3, m default one mqntli?s imprisonment. An application for suppression of the accused's name ivas refused.