LICENSE CANCELLED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 26 November 1938, Page 9

LICENSE CANCELLED

SECOND-HAND DEALER CHARGED FALSE ENTRIES IN REGISTER rdrifted PrcHs Association - ! AUCKLAND, 25th November. The misspelling of the name of an article in an alleged record of the acceptance of property as well as in other papers produced was a feature of the evidence in a case against a secondhand dealer, Stella Cowper, in the Magistrates' Cour' to-day. She was charged with purchasing two indoor bowls and a fishing rod from a person under the age of 16 in breach of the Secondhand Dealers Act, and she pleaded not guilty. Detective-Sergeant Nalder said the pair of bowls were reported missing from the Methodist Sunday School Hall, Great North road, last December and they remained untraced until seen recently in the window of a city pawnshop. When police inquiries were made no record of the purchase of the bowls could be found in the register Which a secohd-hand dealer was compelled to keep for all transactions. Evidence was given that a boy aged 13 sold the boWls and the fishing rod to buy a radio set, having been given permission to do so by his father. Documents allegedly recording the transaction were produced, and the handwriting of three entries was stated by accused to be hers, the boy’s, and another boy’s. On comparing the writing the magistrate. Mr Orr Walker, said it was all the same, and the word bowls was misspelled “boles” in - each case. “The facts point to defendant having put in these entries afterward when the police began to make inquiries.” added the magistrate. In convicting defendant, the magistrate said that when the rules of business were flagrantly broken by one who showed incapacity to qarry them out it was necessary in the interest? of the public that the license should be taken away. In defendant’s case jt appeared ps though she had been tempted to manipulate her books to meet the situation. The magistrate cancelled defendant’s ) cense, and ordered her to pay costs, 18S.