SIX MONTHS' GAOL

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 90, 13 October 1938, Page 11

SIX MONTHS' GAOL

CANTERBURY FARMER

SEQUEL TO AN ACCIDENT

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

TIMARU, This Day.

Lad-Jan John Grant, a well-known Clandeboye farmer and a prominent member of South Canterbury organisations, was sentenced this morning by Mr. Justice Northcroft to six months' imprisonment with hard labour on a charge of failing to stop and give all practicable assistance after an accident. The charge arose out of the discovery of Mrs. Kate Maxwell Johnson on the roadside on the evening of June 21. Eight miles away Grant's car ran into a telegraph pole, and it was the inference of the prosecution that the car had been deliberately run into the pole to explain damage done to the car when it struck the woman, who had a leg fractured. Glass found in the vicinity of the woman and some found near the pole was fitted together in a successful effort to reconstruct a portion of the lamp glass of the accused's car.

The Judge commented on the manner the work was executed and at the clear way the case was presented.

Counsel suggested that a monetary penalty should be imposed, but Mr. Justice Northcroft refused on the grounds that it would be making a discrimination between a man of means and persons in poorer circumstances.

Alexander John Hmrdley, aged 28, married, was placed on probation for two years for the theft of £261 12s 6d, the property of John Mill and Co.