POLICE COURT NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18709, 15 May 1924, Page 5

POLICE COURT NEWS.

SERIES OF THEFTS BY YOUTH.

NIGHTS SPENT IN OPEN.

lack of parental control -was allegedly the source of the wrong-doing of a 17-year-old youth, charged in the Police Court yesterday ■with a 1 series of thefts and with being an idle and disorderly person. The charges, which were ; heard before Mr. J. W. Poynton, S.M., and Messrs. H. T. Garratt and J. Dillicar, J.P.'a, covered a period from April to May, and included the theft of a bicycle and. a, leather kit bag, the owners of which had been traced, and a military overcoat, the property of a person unknown. ', ; .. Accused was sentenced to one month's imprisonment without hard labour, at the expiration of which application would be made to transfer him to an industrial school, „ ' ** On counsel's application, publication of accused's name was prohibited. . , ,

SUIT BY FALSE PRETENCES. ■' Leslie James Byrne, aged 21, was charged with having obtained a suit of clothes under false pretences v from ,V 5 a tailor's shop. According to the police, accused ordered a suit and agreed to call for it later and pay for it. lie returned when the manager was out and falsely represented- to the shop assistant that the suit had been paid for. ..'..-. -"•.-• Asked whether he could pay for the suit, accused replied confidently, "I can pay within 24 hours." The case was accordingly remanded until to-morrow to enable him to carry out the promise. A TAXI DRIVE INCIDENT. Charged with having been drunk in Hobson Street on .Tuesday night, with having assaulted a taxi-driver and damaged a curtain of the car, James Thompson, aged 27, gave the Court to understand that he recollected very little of the incident. The taxi-driver, Reginald Arthur Leonard Chissholm, stated that he drove two men to a boarding house in Hobson Street.. Both appeared to be paralytically drunk. When asked for the fare (3s), accused paid 2s, but declined to pay the balance, and when pressed for it, struck witness in the mouth. One of the side curtains was damaged to the extent of £2. Accused was convicted and discharged, and ordered to pay the amount of the damage.

ARREARS OF MAINTENANCE. ' William Joseph Whyte, aged 26, charged with failing to comply with a maintenance order in respect of his wife, adnutted that he was in arrears to the extent of £31 lis.. The amount of the order, it was stated, 10s a week. He was sentenced formally to one months imprisonment, the order to be suspended provided he made regular payments of current maintenance, and. a further lUs a week off the arrears. '

DANGEROUS DRIVING. Some 30 motorists C- were charged with preaches of the city traffic by-laws, small fines being imposed in the: majority of cases. 'C. Kelly, : who was reported by the police to have been travelling along Remuera Road at a speed of 33 miles an hour, was fined £2, and costs; 13s. jH. Cooper, who ; had ; passed a stationary tramcar in Remuera ' Road . and had -. run over the foot of a passenger who had just alighted, was fined 20s and } J63 : witness* expenses, with costs*