Kaitaia Court

Northland Age, Volume XVIII, Issue 36, 8 February 1949, Page 3

Kaitaia Court

SITTING HELD TODAY There was a sitting of the Kaitaia Court held today before Mr. W. Carrol Harley S.M., when there were a few civil cases heal'd, and two police cases. Wiki Pene was charged that he stole a car generator and cut-out from the hut of a Public Works employee. Sgt. J. H. Harrington stated thai this had been removed from a truck on 28th October, 1948, and had afterwards been found by a Public Woiks employee in some scrub the man was clearing from beside the road. This man had taken it to his hut, and there was ample evidence to show that this was the truth. Who had originally stolen these things had not been found, but it had been established that they had ben left in the hut on the day of the 12th November, 1948. Accused had taken the articles and had admitted doing so when the police questioned him. Pene pleaded guilty, and when asked what he had to say by Mr. Harley, stated that he didn’t know. He bad intended to use them for a lighting plant of his own. “That was not very clever,” said His Worship. Defendant was fined £5 with costs. Stole Liquor Dick King aged 23, farmhand, Tony King, aged 20, farmhand, and George Rickett, aged 21, labourer, were all charged with the theft at Takahue on Sunday, January 9, of four dozen bottles of stout and one dozen bottles if ale from the shed of Mr. Biggwither. Sgt. Harrington said that Mr. Biggwither had left his shed padlocked or. that evening, and in the morning it was found that an entry had been made by forcing the lock. The liquor mentioned had been taken, and subsequent inquiries showed that the three defendants had taken the liquor and drunk it in an adjoining paddock. All three pleaded guilty, and expressed deepest regret at the folly of their action. They vti <. convicted and placed on probation for twelve months, one of the conditions of probation being that they took out a prohibition jrder for that period. Each defendant was ordered to pay £2 as restitution for the value of the goods they had taken.