POLICE COURT

Evening Star, Issue 23886, 16 May 1941, Page 8

POLICE COURT

FRIDAY, MAY 16. • (Before Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M.) REMANDED. Pleading guilty to charges of being drunk and disorderly and to using indecent language, the offences having been committed in the Mayfair Theatre last night, Alfred Freeman Jephson was remanded in custody until Monday next. CYCLIST FINED. For riding an unlighted bicycle, George John Burns was fined ss, with costs (10s). OFFENDING MOTORISTS. John Simm was fined 20s, with costs (10s) on a charge of failing to keep his motor car to the left of the roadway. For failing to take out a heavy traffic license, Thomas Frederick Sheehan was convicted and ordered to pay costs (10s). For failing to produce a warrant of fitness for the motor car he was driving, Kenneth Sydney Low was convicted and discharged, and on a. charge of being an unlicensed driver he was fined os,, with costs (10s). PRICE STABILISATION. Charged under the Board of Trade Act with having sold certain bolt fasteners at an unreasonably high price, and under the Price Stabilisation Emergency Regulations with selling goods above prices ruling on September 1, 1939, 11. B. Donniston and Co. Ltd. pleaded guilty. Mr J. B. Deaker, who prosecuted, said that the percentage of profit in the case of the fasteners ranged from 219£ per cent, and 309 J per cent. Mr P. Gray, representing the defendant firm, said that while it was admitted that a mistake had been made, the sales of these particular goods did not exceed three small boxes per annum, representing a few shillings. Defendant was fined £2O, with costs (10s) on the first charge, and on the second charge was convicted and ordered to pay costs. Solicitor’s fee (£3 3s) was allowed in each case. SHOPLIFTING CHARGE. A married woman, for whom Mr A. N. Haggitt appeared, pleaded guilty to four charges of theft from shops in the city of goods to the total value of £55. the stolen goods including a: fur coat, a fnr necklet, and two bats. Accused attended the court in a state of semi-collapse, but it was agreed to proceed with the case. Detective-sergeant Hall said that the accused had been arrested as the result of a complaint by the proprietor of a George street shop. She had £7 8s in her possession when arrested and had no occasion to steal. Mr Haggitt described the case as a most distressing one, and accused’s act as being one which could be accounted for only by her impaired mental and physical condition at the time. Counsel

submitted that accused was in a state bordering on mental instability, and added that lie proposed to call medic?- 1 , evidence in support of his content'oa. Evidence by the husband of the accused and by two doctors was to the effect that accused, in her present stage of life, had been affected by over-doses of, thyroid tablets which had been prescribed for her. Her disposition, her husband deposed, had entirely changed recently. One witness stated that 'kleptomania was one of the more serious manifestations of accused’s condition; it did not. however, often appear. Tl*f* Magistrate said that, after hearing the evidence submitted, he was unable to find that the accused did not realise what she was doing at the time of the offences. On the charge of the theft of a fur coat valued at £29, accused was fined £lO, and on the other three charges she was convicted and admitted to probation for a period of 12 months. An application by counsel for the suppression of accused’s name was loft to the discretion of the Press. BREAKING AM) ENTERING ALLEGED. Thomas Anzac 'Reid M'Gillivray and Kenneth Lawrence Kearney, for whom Mr C. J. L. White appeared, pleaded not guilty to a charge of breaking and entering the premises of New Zealand Breweries Ltd. with intent to commit a crime. Senior-sergeant Black, who prosecuted, said that about 10.40 p.m, on April 25 an employee of the New Zealand Breweries saw a light in one of the cellars. Assistance was obtained and the two accused were discovered in another cellar in their stocking feet. Two five-gallon kegs of beer which had been in one of the cellars had been moved to a tunnel leading to Rattrav street. Evidence along the lines of the senior sergeant’s statement was given by employees of New Zealand Breweries Ltd. (Proceeding.)