CONVERSION ALLEGED

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 36, 12 February 1936, Page 13

CONVERSION ALLEGED

ENGINEER CHARGED

DISAPPEARANCE OF CAR

Charged with the unlawful conversion of a motor-car, valued at £303, the property of William Trevor Hume, ■Dudley Holdsworth Smith, an engineer, aged 24, appeared in the Magistrate's Court this morning before Mr. J. G. L. Hewitt, S.M.. Sub-Inspector C. E. Roach conducted the prosecution. William Trevor Hume, a farmer, of Pirinoa, said that he was in Wellington on November 30, staying at the Royal Oak Hotel. About 11 p.m. he had left his car in front of the hotel. Half an hour later, he found that the car had been removed, and reported the matter to the police. The next day, having been notified that his car had been recovered in Levin, he went there and took possession of it. The right-hand front, mudguard was dented, and the back number-plate had been bent over. A two-gallon petrol tin was in the back seat, and he could say that he had never seen it before. An examination of the speedometer showed that the car had travelled since the morning between 150 and 160 miles. He had not seen ■ the accused before, and no one had authority to remove the car. Cross-examined by Mr. F. W. Ongley, who appeared for the accused, witness said that he could fix the time of leaving the car within a few minutes. The car was a four-door sedan of recent model. Norman Archibald, a garage attendant at a service station in Taranaki Street, said that late on November 30 a man whom he could not positively identify as the accused called at the station and asked for four gallons of petrol. Four gallons were put in the car, and two. were given to the man in a tin belonging to the firm. The tin produced in Court was identified by the witness as the one lent by the company. The man had ordered the petrol to be charged to D. P. Fisher, of 22 Wigan Street, and signed himself A. F. Fisher. Witness said the car was one of two makes. The man had said he was going up country on a trip, and would return the tin the following Friday. ■ Detective J. G. Long stated that the accused had made a signed statement that he had obtained six gallons of petrol from the Petrol Supplies station, and had signed the docket with Mr. Fisher's name. He had then been in a car whose owner1 he did not know, but he thought it was a rental car. He had been to a party that night. The accused said that he had signed for the petrol in the name of Fisher becauso he had no. money on him,' and had previously worked for Mr. Fisher. He could not account for the whereabouts of the tin, but identified the docket as the one he had signed. In a subsequent interview, the accused was shown the tin, which he recognised, stated the detective, but said that he did not know how it got in the car which had been found. On being asked if his previous explanation held, the.accused had said it did.. Smith was committed for trial to the Supreme Court.