WEIGHED HIS COUPONS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 13 April 1945, Page 4

WEIGHED HIS COUPONS

BUTCHER IN COURT Invercargill, Apl. 1L Pleading guilty in the Magistrate’s Court to-day to eight breaches of the rationing emergency regulations John Maxwell Winders, butcher, was fined a total of £6O. He was charged with making untrue statements in signed certificates concerning the number of meat coupons in envelopes in which the coupons were deposited with the bank. The police said that butchers were required to deposit the coupons exchanged for meat in certain envelopes. They were also required to detail th* number and value of the coupons on a certificate attached to the envelope. The bank where they were lodged gave a credit slip for the coupons and the subsequent allocation of meat was based on the credit slips. In October a check was made on the number of coupons deposited. There were fewer coupons than the number and value shown on the certificates. It also noticed that some of the coupons were not those of current availability. The value of the shortage was £57 12s, representing about 20001 b of meat. For the defendant Mr Moller said he realised that he had placed himself in a serious position, not by active intention of dishonesty but by foolish methods he adopted in counting the coupons. The necessity of counthad taken up a great deal of his time and he had hit upon the idea of weighing an envelope with a certain number of coupons. Thereafter, instead, of counting he weighed the coupons and checked them against the weight of the first envelope. Unfortunately he had not taken into consideration the different sizes of the coupons. Further. the time question entei-ed into the matter and he entrusted much of the work to his 13-year-old son. It was the first prosecution of the kind and the defendant was probably one of several who had been circularised about the coupons.—P.A.