POLICE COURT NEWS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17853, 6 August 1921, Page 11

POLICE COURT NEWS

MANY CASES OF THEFT. LAPSE BY A YOUTH. The theft of a number of articles of clothing and a brief bag. of a total vaiue of £4 10s. was admitted by a youth. Kenneth Hardie Nicholson, who came before Mr. W. R. McLean. S.M . in the Police Court yesterday. It was stated that accused was a railway employee, and when transferred from Auckland had taken the articles from boarders at the boarding house where he stayed. He was convicted and discharged on two charges, and on the third fined £5 and ordered to pay 17s 6d in restitution for unrecovered property. VAGRANCY AND THEFT. Joseph Percy Morgan denied charges of vagrancy, the theft of a brief bag, valued at 10.s. and the theft of a suit vajued at £3 10s. The evidence of Detectives Meiklejohn, Lambert, and O'Krien showed that accused consorted with persons of ill-repute, frequented holels, did no work, and was a reputed thief. Kvidenco was also given as t:> aocused having sold the brief bag to a secondhand dealer. He was convicted on the first two charges, and remanded for a week for sentem e. He elected to he tried by a jury on the third charge. AN INNOCENT MISTAKF.

A young ■woman, Mary Dawson (Mr. S:ott) was charged with having fraudulently Mated that she had posted a letter containing money or other valuables, ; whereas she had. not so done. The case | was a sequel to a complaint by defendant i that -i letter containing a money-order ! for £2 had not reached its destination in , Melbourne. The information was dismissed, the evidence showing that a I registered letter had been sent, and that ! the defendant had been mistaken in her I belief that she had obtained a money- | order. I TRESPASS CHAftGE CONTESTED ■ diaries Henry <;!over (Mr. Mavs) was I charged with having been unfawfully | found on the Ellerslie racecourse, when | it was being used by the Auckland Raxing Club for the purpose of a race meeting, in breach of the club's regulations, he bemc a person who had been convicted of forgery and false pretences, and as such excluded from the course. The case was contested. Detective-Sergeant Cummings gave evidence as to his having warned defendant off the course on March 26, when races were being held. Defendant was a perj son. excluded by the regulations. In the course of cross-examination, witness said he thought defendant was one of the type of undesirable individuals for whom the regulations were framed to exclude. Francis Cullen, racecourse detective, gave corroborative evidence as to defendant having been warned off. . • Counsel submitted that the information disclosed no offence. The regulations, as framed, did not contain an exact definition of the offence with which defendant was charged. Counsel spoke at some length in support of his content ion that the information was defective. He asked for a ruliflg on his contention before proceeding, with the second defence. The magistrate said he was not prepared to decide the point offhand. He reserved his decision. MISCELLANEOUS ' CASES. A young man. Alfred Phillip Cullum. wa* fined £1- and costs for the theft of a-wallet and tie pin from a former fellowemployee at a racing stable at Takapuna. For committing wilful damage in a cell at the police station, after having been arrested for drunkenness, Arnold Mci Clune was fined £1 ai>d ordered to pay : the dama,ge, £1 ss. For drunkenness he was fined 10s.

Fong Tom, a Chinese laundry keeper, was fined £1 for failing to keep a wages and overtime book, and for employing Fong Eyk in the laundry after 7 p.m. w-ithout a permit, defendant being tne occupier of a factory within the meaning of the Factories Act.

On a charge of having stolen a portmanteau and contents valued at £44 Is 6d, David McArthur Todd and Francis Hagin were remanded for a week.