POLICE COURT NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19320, 6 May 1926, Page 12

POLICE COURT NEWS.

THEFT CHARGE DISMISSED. BOARDING HOUSE INCIDENT. MAN GIVEN BENEFIT OF DOUBT. " I will give him the benefit of the doubt," said Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., in the Police Court yesterday in dismissing a charge against George Waterman (Mr. Schram) of stealing a coat, a pair of trousers, a pair of braces and a shirt, of a total value of £1 8s 6d, the property of Ernest Korn. The proprietress' of a Hobson Street boardirighouso said that on tho afternoon of April 13 accused asked for a room. She told him he would have to pay for it by five o'clock and he said ho would have to pawn his suit to get the money. Accused took articles of clothing out of Korn's room and wore them to the pawnbroker's shop. They were found next morning under a mattress. Accused said the only thing he took was a coat, which he imagined belonged to a friend of his. He had no intention of stealing it, but just borrowed it until he sold his suit. TENANT IN TROUBLE. The theft of a table, cupboard, a quantity of wire netting and a piece ot Umber valued at £3 was admitted bj Frank Henry Pearse, aged 34. Chief-Detective Cummings said accused had been renting a house at New Lynn and had got in arrears with the rent to the extent of £2B. When he left the house he took with him furniture which belonged to the landlord. He was married and had three children. So far as the police were aware, he bore a satisfactory character. The chief detective understood there had been sickness in accused's family. Accused was convicted and discharged and an order was made for the return of the furniture. MAN WHO SLEPT OUT. " We have had quite a number of fires lately owing to men sleeping out, said Chief-Detective Cummings when Daniel Perry, aged 49, was charged with vagrancy. , Accused said he pleaded guilty, but he had been unable to get work. The chief detective said accused had been sleeping out. He was before the court last month and was ordered to come for sentence. In ordering accused to come up tor sentence when called upon the magistrate told him he would have to cease sleeping out. EPISODE IN TRAM. " He was under the influence of-liquor and when the conductor ask<'d him for his fare he used bad language" said Sergeant Miller in the case of Thomas Harrison. aged 33 (Mr. Schram). who admitted using obscene language in a tramcar in Pitt Street, The sergeant added that there were a number of people in the tram at the time. In asking for leniency, counsel said accused had not been in trouble before. "I have seen a man get three months' imprisonment for using language Kkc that," commented the magistrate. "He will be fined £5. in default 14 days' imprisonment. I will give him seven days to pay." TWO CASES REMANDED. A charge* of stealing £l, the property of the Royal Motor Bus Company, was preferred against William Charles Warwick, aged 27. Accused was remanded until next Thursday, bail being fixed, at £2O. Harold Gordon Stanley Woolfe, aged 23, was remanded until next Thursday on a charge of stealing a saxophone valued at £43, the property of Lewis R. Eadv and Son, Ltd.