POLICE COURT

Evening Star, Issue 23498, 12 February 1940, Page 9

POLICE COURT

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12. (Before Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.M.) ADMITTED TO PROBATION. Christopher John Kilgour, who was represented by Mr J. •P. Ward, appeared for sentence on a charge of the theft of cigarettes and money of a total value of £2 12s 4d, the property of Mona Patricia Boberg. Mr Ward said the case was one of sudden temptation. The accused went to the shop to get some matches. He saw the cigarettes there, and the temptation was too great. He was a young married man. The Magistrate said that the theft was a shabby one, but the accused had been in custody over the week-end. The probation officer’s report was quite favourable, and the accused would be admitted to probation for a year. DRUNKENNESS. David Alfred Brown and Norman Richard White, both statutory first offenders, were each fined 20s, in default 48 hours’ imprisonment. ‘ INTOXICATED MOTORIST. James Patrick Shcehy, for whom Mr O. G. Stevens appeared, pleaded guilty to being in charge of a moto” vehicle while in a state of intoxication. Sergeant F. Johnson, who prosecuted, said that the defendant was seen driving his truck at 6.5 on Saturday evening in a southerly direction past Green Island. An inspector noticed that the motor truck was being driven in an erratic manner, and when it stopped and the defendant got out he was noticed to be intoxicated to such an extent that he was bordering on a state of . drunkenness. The defendant was arrested and was examined and certified as being intoxicated and not in a fit state to be in charge of the truck. Mr Stevens said there was no excuse for this type of offence, but the defendant had a good one-man carrying business and at present was engaged in a cartage contract. He realised that his license must go. “ Sufficient warnings have been given in connection with these cases,’’ said the Magistrate, in imposing a fine of £2O, with medical expenses (£1 Is). The defendant’s license was suspended, and he was prohibited from obtaining one for 12 months. TERM OF IMPRISONMENT. Harold John Salmon appeared for sentence on charges of theft and false pretence, Detective-sergeant Hall said that since the accused was remanded last Wednesday he had appeared before the Supreme Court and had been sentenced to one month’s imprisonment with hard labour in respect of a charge there. Mr W. H. Carson, who appeared tor the accused, said that the case presented certain difficulties, in that the accused appeared on the way to becoming a social problein, in that ho was almost totally blind. Referring to the false pretence, counsel said that it was a particularly stupid act. The accused was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment with hard labour on each charge, the sentences to be concurrent. YOUNG MAN CHARGED. “ The circumstances of the case are quite unusual and the affair was probably more in the nature of fooling than of a criminal act,” said the Magistrate in respect of John Alexander Wilhain Forrester, who pleaded guilty to the theft of a watch valued at £7, the property of Gwendoline Roberta Tis-Detectivc-sergeant Hall said that on February 3 last, at 11.45 p.ro., the accused and two other young men called at Mr Tisdall’s home at Middlemarch, as one of the young men wanted to see the complainant. They had gone to Middlemarch to attend a dance, but found that it had been held the previous night. The girl was in bed, but her father invited the young, men inside, and they remained for about 10 minutes. As Forrester was leaving the house ho saw a lady’s gold wristlet watch on the sideboard. He took the watch and .said nothing about it. He also took a skirt, telling the girl she would get it if she came out to tho car. The girl went out, and they were talking there for a few minutes when her father ordered her inside, telling the young men to go away. The skirt was eventually recovered,, but when the accused was interviewed by Detective Brown he said he knew nothing about the watch, but later he said he had it. The accused had been in trouble several times before. Mr L. R. Simpson, who appeared for the accused, said that it was at the request of oue of the others he hod picked up the skirt, as he wanted tho girl to come outside. He returned to the house, and as he went out the accused lifted the watch. The accused said he had intended going to another dance at Middlemarch, and that he had it in mind to play a prank with the girl and return the watch to her then, The accused was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence if called on in six months.