FEW REMISSIONS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22637, 14 May 1948, Page 4

FEW REMISSIONS

COURT PENALTIES DRUNKEN DRIVERS EXCEPTIONAL CASES ONLY (P.A.) WELLINGTON, May 14. Remissions were very sparingly granted and only where exceptional circumstances eodsted, stated the Under-Secretary of Justice, Mr. B. L. Dallard, in referring to the comments regarding the remission of penalties imposed on persons convicted of intoxication while in charge of motorvehicles, which had been made the previous night by the chairman of the council of the Automobile Association (Wellington), Mr. E. A. Batt. “It is usual to grant only conditional restorations, that is, subject to a prohibition order or other precautionary restrictions and no remission of the penalty is made except by the Governor-General in exercise of the Royal prerogative of mercy,” said Mr. Dallard. “Before any application is considered, it is the practice of the Minister of Justice to obtain the views of the convicting magistrate and the police reports. Undue personal hardship and inconvenience is not ‘a special reason.’ “The courts are empowered to consider and sometimes the magistrates themselves in special cases advise the defendants to apply to the Minister. For instance, a restoration after the expiration of seven months was recently made (on the recommendation of the magistrate and the police) in the case of a middle-aged man suffering from a deformity and arthritic trouble which made it necessary for him to have the use of his car to enable him to continue in his occupation.

“In another case a remission after six months was granted on account o£ the serious illness of the defendant’s wife after the death of her child which precluded her from driving for him. The application in this case was supported by a traffic officer and was recommended by the magistrate who originally dealt with it. The cases being so few, it would appear that the latter case is one to which Mr. Batt refers in his statement.”