MOTOR PROSECUTIONS

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4809, 12 July 1939, Page 5

MOTOR PROSECUTIONS

FAILURE TO RE-LICENSE. NO THIRD PARTY COVER. Motorists caught On June 1 and 2, just after renewal was due, were in the Magitsrate's Court yesterday charged with operating vehicles when not the holders of drivers' licenses and with driving unregistered vehicles. Charged with committing these offences on June 1, Donald Chatwin, motor car salesman, was fined £2, costs 10s, for driving an unlicensed car and 5s costs 10s, for driving when not the holder of a driver's license. He pleaded guilty, but said he had understood, as had his firm, that a day's grace was always allowed.

Similar fines were imposed on Greville F. McCarthy. When pleading guilty this defendant pointed out that having just taken over a job, he had no money until paid at the beginning of June, and was coming in to Te Kuiti to secure the necessary licenses when he was caught. Charged with permitting the operation of an unregistered motor lorry, the Ratanui Sawmilling Company was fined £2, costs 12s.

'The plea made was that the truck had been purchased a month or two before and the registration papers had failed to arrive, even when asked for*. From June 2, when Inspector Cook stopped the truck, until June 16, when the necessary papers arrived, the truck had to be laid up. In fining the company, the Magistrate said it had actually committed a second breach through its failure to see that the papers were received within seven days of delivery of the vehicle. The- driver of this truck, Vernon Howard Kyle, was fined ss, costs 10s, for failure to take out his driving license.

For exceeding in a truck the maximum of 25 m.p.h. laid down for heavy vehicles, Reginald Arthur Schlager was fined £2, costs 10s. Traffic Inspector Cook said the speed of the vehicle had been 35 m.p.h., and it had been maintained in a 30 m.p.h. restriction area, in Rora Street. A fine of £2, costs 19s, was imposed upon Irene Amy Smythe for failure to keep to the left hand side of the road, and a further fine of ss, costs 10s, was imposed for driving a car on June 1 before renewing her driver's license.

Seregant Campagnolo stated that the defendant's car collided with one driven by a man named Fisher, on the main road just north of Pio Pio, and a passenger in Fisher's car was slightly injured. The defendant had apparently become dazzled by the lights of Fisher's car and had borne out to the right.

During the hearing of the cases the Magistrate said that he took a serious view of failure to re-license vehicles in view of the absence of third party cover.