“Army Patrol" Sent To Gaol For Two Months

Northern Advocate, 18 May 1943, Page 5

“Army Patrol" Sent To Gaol For Two Months

Wearing battledross witnour. equipment and claiming to be on patrol. Patrick Piney opened the back door of a Whangarei resident and asked the occupant if he knew of a man named Joyce who, he stated, had deserted from his unit taking a rifle, bayonet and ammunition. The householder, a few minutes laler, heard a front room window being opened and investigating found Piney, who made oil. Suspicious, he reported the occurrence to the police and, as a result. Piney appeared in the Whangarei Court charged with being a rogue and a vagabond in that he was found by night without lawful excuse in the yard of a dwelling. Senior-Sergeant: A. Henderson said that later the same night, Piney had been interviewed by a constable and admitted that he had been at the house, stating that: he had had a few drinks and a soldier named Joyce had' taken him away to have a sleep. When he had awakened he had gone to the house. Piney was 21 years of age and in a camp in the Whangarei district. He had previously been convicted three times for thefts and had been sentenced to three months’ imprisonment for theft last September. Piney was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment with hard labour.