Forfeiture of License Part of Penalty

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 55, 6 March 1937, Page 5

Forfeiture of License Part of Penalty

DRUNKEN MILKMAN BEFORE AUCKLAND COURT. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Last Night. A fine of £ls was imposed and his driving license cancelled when a farmer and milk vendor, Bertram Edmund Bezar, aged 30, appeared before Air U. it. Orr Walker, S.AI. in the Police Court, denying the charge of being intoxicated in charge of a motor van in Queen street on February 23. Summarising the evidence the Magistrate said it showed that defendant had consumed three bottles of beer on the afternoon of his arrest. Yet while it was beyond fact that his breath smelled of liquor he gave no other signs of intoxication when examined by two doctors some time later. Allowance had to be made for possible tendency of the police after being informed that an intoxicated driver had bumped into another car, and the possible wrong tendency of a doctor supporting his own patient.

“1 have formed the opinion that accused was unquestionably intoxicated at the time of his arrest,” the Magistrate continued.'* It is not for me to say how much he was intoxicated at that material time, for it is possible his condition had improved by the time he was medically examined.” In imposing a fine of £ls and costs and cancelling accused's driving license for a period of nine months, the Magistrate said, in reply to counsel's appeal for the retention of the licence, that the forfeiture of the licence had to be rej garded as part of the penalty in such, cases.