AFTER THE PARTY

Evening Star, Issue 21709, 2 May 1934, Page 8

AFTER THE PARTY

SAXOPHONIST BLOWS WRONG NOTE CONVERSION OF MOTOR CYCLE Seeking a speedy means of transport to Ids note! early this morning, a visiting saxophonist, who had been to a’ party in North Dunedin, tried to start a motor cycle that did not belong to him. The engine, however, did not respond to his endeavours, and lys actions, having attracted the attention or a constable, merely took him as far as the police station. The visitor, Eric William Frew, appeared in the Police Court this morning charged with converting to his own use a motor cycle valued at £l2 10s, the property of Geoffrey Thornton Dudley. „ Represented by Mr A. G. Neill, he pleaded guilty and was fined £2. Last evening at about 7.30 a medical student left his motor cycle standing in King street, said Senior-sergeant Mac Lean, and at about 2.30 a.m. a constable saw the accused pushing it along and at times trying to start it. He was unable to start it, however, and eventually he abandoned it. The constable, whose suspicions had been aroused, raced after him and asked him the' reasons for his actions. At the police station the accused made the explanation that he was a member of the Tom Katz Band and had met friends last evening, whom he accompanied to their home in North Dunedin. Coming back, he found he had no money for a taxi, and when, he saw the motor cycle he decided to ride it to the hotel where he was staying. He had never been before a court before, and_ was a stranger in Dunedin. The senior-ser-geant added that from inquiries there was no record of anything against him. Mr Neill said that the act was more one of foolishness than of any intent to do an injury. He had had more than a considerable quantity of liquor. The accused had assured him that he did not run after he had abandoned the machine. He had ridden a motor cycle some years ago in Australia, and when he saw this cycle he looked on it as a means of getting back to his hotelHowever, he had merely pushed it a block or so and left it. Tinder the circumstances, it seemed, that it was not an ordinary case of conversion, and counsel thought that a conviction only would have a sufficiently salutary effect and make the accused realise that he had to look after himself at parties. He came from respectable people. The Magistrate (Mr J. B- Bartholomew, S.M.): If he had succeeded in starting the machine he would have got away and the constable would have ad no chance of catching him It was not his fault that that did not happen. . , , ~ Tho accused was fined £2, in default seven days’ imprisonment.