CAR CONVERTED
DRIVE TO AUCKLAND SOLDIERS SENTENCED (By Telegraph—Press Association.)' AUCKLAND, August 22. Two soldiers from Trentham, Oswald Oliver Wahrlich, aged 21, and Colin Vivial Symons, aged 20, came before Mr. Justice Blair in the Supreme Court today for sentence on a charge of unlawful conversion of a motor-car and on a charge of reckless driving and causing injury. Wahrlich told the Judge that they intended leaving Wellington by the steamer express for Lyttelton, where he wanted to see a young woman, but they found the wharf picketed. They took a car and drove to Palmerston North, intending to take a plane to Christchurch, but found they had insufficient money. On a further mad impulse, they drove to Auckland. A plain-clothes constable accosted them, and he was on the car step guiding them to the police station when the car accidentally hit a safety zone, knocking the constable off. They then drove the car away in a panic. Symons had. nothing to say, except to express the hope that they might get back to camp. The Judge said that both previously had been in trouble in connection with conversion of cars and both had been sentenced to two years' Borstal. He was unable to accept Wahrlich's assurance that it was an . accident that caused injury to the constable. While Wahrlich doubtless did not intend to injure the constable, it seemed certain he intended to "scrape him off the car with the safety zone," and was reckless about causing injury. It was a very serious act. Wahrlich was . sentenced to 18 months' reformative detention for reckless driving and a further 18 months' reformative detention for conversion of the car and the theft of benzine. Symons was sentenced tpHB months' reformative detention.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 47, 23 August 1940, Page 12
Word Count
290CAR CONVERTED Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 47, 23 August 1940, Page 12
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