LAPSE OF MEMORY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 162, 25 June 1935, Page 6

LAPSE OF MEMORY

Man Leaves His Home

CHARGE OF THEFT

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, June 25.

Tho story of a man who left his home at Auckland to go on a week-end fishing trip and finally found himself at Timaru was told to Mr E. C. Levvey, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court to-day, when John Daintry Campbell Birch, aged 37, described as a clerk, of Monaghan Avenue, Auckland, was charged with obtaining sums totalling £l6 and failing to pay them to Muriel Wallace, thereby committing theft. Accused pleaded guilty. The police said that the complainant was a milk vendor, who had employed the accused to collect accounts, but in March last the accused went off ou complainant's bicycle one day and failed to return.

Counsel said that the accused was married. His position in Auckland was a good one. lie left his homo there in March to go fishing and eventually reached Christchurch and had then no recollection of his past luetory. his wife reported him missing. It was not until he was in Timaru that he came to himself. Counsel suggested that the whole thing was duo to a lapse of memory. Tho accused was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence when called on and to moke restitution in 11 days.