FINED £2O

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 24 June 1927, Page 5

FINED £2O

PENALTY ON MOTORIST.

LICENCE CANCELLED FOR YEAR.

MAGISTRATE GIVES DECISION

A conviction wavs recorded and & penality Oil £2O, with cancelilaitiion of hills driver« license- tor a period or twelve moil oiks wus recorded tins morning in otic ease. an wilricii Thomas Sheen, a cornu neran.L traveller of Auckland, was enlarged at the Hawera Magistrate’« Count before Mr. J. S. Barton, S.M.,

with being intoxicated while tin charge or a car, a.® ia -result of a ooiliitsioii which took place on the Glover Road on Wednesday evening. Further evidence was a® follows: —

Charles Paterson, a farmer, resident at Otouiaw.-.v, stated that a motor-cyclist who had been involved in an accident called at a house in Glover Road, where witness was visiting some friends, and asked to use the telephone, and later asked witness - -to drive him along the road behind anotlier motor ear. The evidence of the witness Hopkins, regarding tiie arrest of the defendant was corroborated by witness, who stated that the defendant staggered as he walked, and appeared to be iiiitoxiioaited and smelt of liquor. William Moore, a. butcher of Hawena, stated that he a passenger in til© ear which had been travelling in front of the motor cycle. A anoto-i car which, was travelling in the opposite direction passed the car in whi-dl witness was travelling and was noticed to. be- zig-zagging across the road. Sergeant Henry stated that Hop-kim. had called at the Police Station lamd asked witness to. accompany him to' follow -another ©at. The defendant had been followed- to Caledonia Street where witness is topped tine car. The drivei appeared to be intoxicated and witness asked him to get out. Defendant demanded “What for?” Witness told him he did not consider him a fit person to be tin charge of a motor car. He smelt very strongly of drink. Witness arrested him and took him to the Police Station, where his appearance suggested that he was drunk. The defendant’® manner was very objectionable. Dr -Thomson and Air O’Dea were communicated with, and the defendant subsequently admitted to bail. Witness had no hesitation in saying that defendant was not in a fit condition to drive a car.

Grass-examined, Sergeant Henry sale that he did h;of. consider the tests -carried out by Di; Thomson adequate for a maw charged with being intoxicated while in charge of a car. Constable P. J. Alullan deposed to examining the scene, of the accident and the indications were that it- had occurred on the south; fide of Glovei Road. At the Police Station later defendant . appeaa - ed quite sober, but after about ten minutes or so .seemed to. come under the influence of liquor and was obviously intoxicated. This concluded the case for the police. Herbert George Halil, a resident ol Albert iStreet, Hawera, stated that the defendant had driven him home, just before six o’clock, after they had had two drinks in town. Defendant left hi® house about quarter to seven, when he was quits, sober. To the magistrate, witness, said that defendant stayed at his house for about an hour, but would not take a meal, as lie wished to have dinner at his hotel.

Cross-examined by the Sergeant, witness said he did not meet, defendant until Wednesday afternoon at the Central Hotel, where they spent several hour®. lie admitted that he was not interested iin defendant’s business, but saiid. that they had talked horse racing during' the afternoon

Oil a®. Brough, garage manager, stated that defendant ha.d called for bis oar at about six o’clock in the evening, when nothing unusual wla® noticed in hi® appearance or condition. The defendant in evidence stated that lie had met Hall at the hotel during the afternoon, and they had had two chinks together. Later he had driven Hall to his home. On his return journey lie did not see the motor cycle until the -collision took place. Almost immediately after he saw Hopkins .Tunning down the road. Witness® then decided to go to town and report the accident.

To Sergeant Henry, witness said that he Iliad been driving a car for -three years. Eleven years ago witness isaid that lie had. been prohibited.. Since then he had been arrested on three occasions for drunkenness. He admitted that on Wednesday afternoon he might have had. four or five drinks. He admitted that the accident occurred on hi® right hand, side of Hie rood.

The magistrate initdiiniaitiad last evening that hie would deliver judgment tilts morning. He reviewed the evidence at and found without any hesitation ia>nd : without a shadow of doubt that Sheen wais intoxicated at the time the occurred. M A GISTR ATE.’ S JUDGMENT. “I base that finding on the following facts” (stated the magistrate): (if Sheen, being unwell, stayed inside the hotel, consumed four drinks, then went outside to drive the car, and had no evening meal. The last drink was consumed 1 just before he left the hotel with Hall to drive him home, and the hour and a half that intervened between that and the accident included the usual dinner time. (2) He reached Hall’s house soon after 6 p.m., which was Hall’s dinner hour, and the latter’s dinner was on the table. Sheen had an appointment in Haiwera at 6.15, but stayed at Hall’s bouse till 7 p.m. “talking about horses” with a man he had l never met before that afternoon. . . .In the meantime Hall’s dinner waited. . . Sheen got no dinner at all. T find it hard to picture that as the act of a sober man. (3) Sheen drove an erratic course before the accident. This is deposed to by Hopkins and another witness. (41 Sheen, according to his own evidence, did' not see Hopkins’s cycle and side-car until the accident, although it was fitted with two lights. (5) Sheen can give no coherent account of what happened after the accident. Hopkins, whose evidence T believe entirely, accosted' Sheen and asked him iseveral questions, getting no renlv to any but the first. . .

Sheen’s account is: “After the collision I thought Hopkins was running away—after the accident he came up alongside of meg I do not Temember what he said; next thing T saw he was running down the footpath : I cannot remember anything he said.” It was not till I reminded him that Hookins had told of his getting out of the •»ar that* he recalled 1 that fact. (Til Sheen can give no description of his movements after driving away from the accident till he was seen in Albion street, except that he asked some ladies to direct him to town. Another accident had occurred at the railway station, and a big crowd was there at the time. Sheen must have driven past it, hut he has no recollection of it . . .

even allowing for the fact .tb/at he