WIN AT THE RACES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 17, 21 January 1939, Page 6

WIN AT THE RACES

CHARGE FOLLOWS

WOMAN FINED £10

Described by counsel as a victim of her own good fortune in that she consumed some liquor after making a profitable investment at the Trentham races, Tui Amelia Scally, a clerk, aged 31, pleaded guilty to being intoxicated in charge of a car in Willeston Street when she appeared before Mr. J..H. Luxford, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday. '

At about 6.45 p.m. yesterday, said Sub-Inspector J. A. Dempsey, prosecuting, a motorist proceeding along the Hutt Road towards Wellington saw thkt a sedan car aheadof him was being driven in an erratic manner. He overtook and passed the car, which later overtook and passed him, and eventually stopped in Thorndon Quay. On the Hutt Road the defendant's car went' under the right-hand side of the overhead bridge instead of under the left-hand side, and overtook and passed cars on the wrong side. The police eventually saw the defendant and her companion in the car in Willeston Street, and the defendant was examined by a doctor, who stated that she was intoxicated. Sha was making her first appearance before the Court.

"This is a particularly painful case." said Mr., R. E. Pope, counsel for the defendant. "Yesterday this young lady borrowed a car from a friend, and, with another lady, went to the races. Yesterday she was not in ,the best of health, and it was perhaps unfortunate that she went to the races. She had nothing to eat during the day, and she perhaps was a victim of her owa good fortune in that she made a profitable investment on one of the races, and, in her excitement, between. the seventh and eighth races, she consumed some liquor which. apparently' at that particular time did not immediately affect her. The car was actually parked in the members' enclosure, and it is not an easy thing to drive a car from there on to the main road, except for a driver who is in possession of his or her faculties. She manoeuvred the car in the proper way, the liquor apparently had' a delayed effect, and she did not feel it until she was on her way to Wellington."

The car had been damaged, .said Mr. Pope, and that would have to be made, good by the defendant, who Had held a driver's licence for- nine years and I had not been in any previous trouble.

Tha Magistrate: What wasthe amount of her winnings—the cause of this trouble? ' ;

He understood they amounted :'to about £3 13s, said counsel. : . ■

Mr, Pope applied for the suppression of his client's name. . . .

It was not a question of considering suppression of name, said the Magistrate, but a question as to whether, in the circumstances, the offence should not be deatt with by the imposition of a term of imprisonment. There was, however, one feature of the case in which he was inclined to., agree with, counsel^-and that was in regard: to. the dei^yed .effect-of the alcohol. -It. "would seem, in viewhof the fact^that the^ defendant had taken the car from Uhe racecourse and driven along the" Hutt Road without being stopped by traffic inspectors, that this had been the case.

A fine of £10 was imposed, the defendant's licence was suspended, and she was prohibited from obtaining another for a period of twelve months.