NOMINAL FINE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20151, 22 January 1940, Page 5

NOMINAL FINE

ASLEEP IN HIS CAR OARSMAN’S LAPSE LIQUOR AFTER RACES (Spooial to tlio Iluruld.) WAIROA, this day. Treating the case as one in which no serious features had occurred, Messrs. J. Corkill and V. E. Winter, J.P.s, today imposed a fine of £2 on a Gisborne plasterer, Thomas Alexander, who pleaded guilty to having been intoxicated while in charge of a motor vehicle. The evidence showed that Alexander had taken part in the rowing regatta on Saturday afternoon, and subsequently had celebrated his club’s successes, with the result that he was found asleep at the wheel of his car in Marine parade. Sergeant Moore stated that at 10.45 p.m. on Saturday while patrolling Marine parade, he found Alexander asleep in his car. On being awakened, the accused had said at first that he did not know whose car it was, but subsequently he admitted that it was his own. He was certified as being unfit to drive a carSergeant Moore said that the accused had been celebrating his club’s regatta successes, and had taken too much liquor. He had stated that he left an hotel to lock his car up, but had unwisely got into the driver’s seat and gone to sleep there.

For the accused, Mr. C. V. Chamberlain stated that Alexander was a cleanliving young man who had been training hard for his regatta events and who had taken only a little liquor, the effect of which was more serious owing to his condition and the fact that he had rowed two hard races in the afternoon. He had visited the hotel to book a room for the night, and there had met many friends, with the result that he could not avoid taking a drink or two. There was no question of his technical culpability, but counsel suggested that the evidence disclosed nothing discreditable to the young man.

The Bench did not look on the case as a serious one, and made the fine a light one. The accused was debarred from driving a car for 12 months, as an additional penalty.