INTRUDER ON WHARF

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 August 1942, Page 2

INTRUDER ON WHARF

AUCKLAND INCIDENT.

AUCKLAND, August 13.

Paul Desire Nestor Verschaffelt, a retired civil servant, aged 55, who, the police alleged, entered Prince’s wharf on Monday wearing an Army officer’s forage cap and a military style overcoat over his civilian clothes, appeared before Mr. F. H. Levien, S.M., on charges, under the Shipping Safety Emergency Regulations, of having deceived a constable and of having gained access to the wharf without a permit. Verschaffelt pleaded not guilty to the first charge and guilty to the second. The constable said he was on duty at the Prince’s wharf gates when he saw the defendant and an Army officer enter the wharf. The officer was not sober. Officers did not need passes, and he thought that Verschaffelt, who was wearing a forage cap, was an .officer, as there were a number entering at the time. When Verschaffelt got further down the wharf however, the witness noticed his dark trousers and arrested'him. Verschaffelt then took off the forage cap. The Army officer was drunk and a perfect nuisance, said Verschaffelt in evidence. As the officer had a roll of notes, the defendant thought he might get into trouble and that the correct thing would be to assist him to his ship. Verschaffelt admitted that he had entered the wharf without a permit, but he denied that he had deceived the constable. He had worn the forage cap earlier in the afternoon as a joke, and the officei had later insisted on his wearing it. He had then worn it to humour the man, and they had walked arm in arm on to the wharf, , Saying that he must give the defendant the benefit of the doubt _on the first charge, the Magistrate dismissed it, and fined him DIG on the second charge.