POLICE COURT NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15930, 29 May 1915, Page 5

POLICE COURT NEWS.

« . LIGHT HALF.SOVEREIGN. CHARGE OF FALSE PRETENCES. A half-sovereign which was deficient in weight to tho extent of 20 grains, making it worth only 7s 6d, was the cause ot Arthur Frederick Hughes being charged in the Police Court yesterday with uttering a counterfeit coin. The charge was subsequently reduced to one of false pretences, and accused pleaded guilty. Senior-Sergeant Rutledgc said that accused went into a chemist's shop at Davonport, tendering the half-sovereign in question as payment for some medicine. The attendant drew accused's attention to the lightness of the coin, and after weighing it told him that it was 20 grains too light. Accused then went to another chemist a little further along the street and without question obtained his medicine and 9s in silver in exchange for the half-sovereign. The first chemist visited the second and told him about the coin. Accused, when subsequently questioned, said he had received the coin in change he got when lie paid a gas hill for 78 fid, tendering a sovereign. Accused, added the senior sergeant, had undoubtedly paid this bill, but whether or not he received a half-sovereign in the change could not now be ascertained. Hughes, it was stated, was a man in poor circumstances. He was a compositor by trade, and had come from Australia. He was now working at Helensville, and had a wife and family to support. When his house was searched nothing was found in it \r> indicate that he had anything to do with the defacement of the coin. Mr. F. V. Frazer, S.M., said he was satisfied the accused did not know that there was anything wrong with the coin when he went to the first chemist. What he did in the second shop, after being told about the coin, was probably done without due consideration. In view of all the circumstances, accused would be ordered to come up for knee when called upon. Ho was also ordered to pay the half-crown deficiency to the chemist. SENTENCED FOR FRAUD. William Martin, who was convicted last week of having stolen two sets of snooker balls, of having obtained by false pretences the sum of £20 by means of a bill of sale on billiard tables which were not his, and of having obtained £4 by a false pretence in having represented that the money was wanted for a license, was brought up for sentence yesterday. Mr. P.. Singer asked fur leniency, stating that his client war, in bad health, and had a wife and children to support. The offences, he suggested, were committed under the stress of want. The magistrate said the offences showed a certain amount of deliberate cunning. Accused ■would be sentenced to reformative treatment for a period not exceeding 12 months. VAGRANTS SENT TO GAOL. Florence McAnally pleaded not guilty to a charge of vagrancy. Ths police evidence .showed that the woman for some months past had been leading an idle and immoral life. She stated to be a nuisance to respectable members of the community. A conviction was recorded, and accused was sentenced to a month's imprisonment with bard labour. Patrick Keens was also charged with vagrancy. Drink, he s?.id, accounted for" the fact that there was no furniture in his hou.ne. He admitted that his companions were frequently undesirable characters. The woman McAnally, said tho police, was practically keeping the man. Kcene, who had no previous conviction against him, was sentenced to I three months' hard labour, His Worship saying that ft man who lived on a woman's earnings was qualified for the 1 maximum sentence of three, months, although it was only his first conviction.- ' l OYSTER-PICKERS FINED. Joseph Morris, Lydin Hartnoll, end Florence Bedford were charged with having picked oysters at West TamaKi. The two . ladies "pleaded suilty, and Morris denied the charge. " Parties landing on rocks from yachts and picking oysters do much damage to the beds," said Mr. J. P. Ridings, who prosecuted. The defendants, lie added, had been opening the oysters with stones. Morris, who admitted being one of the party, said lie had no timo to nick oysters after he landed before the inspector came along. He added that he had never tasted an oyster in his Hfc. The charge against Mpms was- djmiiised, the other, two defendants being fined £1 with '"costs in each rase. His Worship obtained a promise from defendants, that they would not pick any more oysters. He explained that oyster-picking really amounted to theft, and that, unless done properly, it did untold harm to the beds. MISCELLANEOUS CASES. For. driving his motor-car past a stationary tram at a weed 0 30 miles an hour, Christopher Digby was fined £3 with 7s costs. William Veart pleaded guilty to having failed to keep as near ns practicable to the left-hand side of Patevson Street whilst driving a vehicle. He was fined ss, with 7s costs. Being tha driver of a vehicle which was not lighted, James Kerr was ordered to pay 7s costs. He had changed from one vehicle- to another, but had omitted to transfer the lamps from one to the other. Convicted of having been drunk for the fourth time recently, and of the fifth breach' of his prohibition order, Alexander Thomson was sentenced to a month's imprisonment with hard labour. Milo Henry Kirkpatrick, a second offender, was fined 10s, a first offender being fined ss. John O'Qrady, who committed a nuisance whilst under the influence of liquor, was fined £2. __________