ARTFUL SMUGGLERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22166, 20 July 1935, Page 3 (Supplement)

ARTFUL SMUGGLERS

WINE STOWED IN VAN SEATS Wine, brandy, and car parts smuggled in a pantechnicon resulted in Donald Finlayson, a racing mechanic, being fined £SO at Folkestone recently for attempting to evade Customs duties. Mr. E. 11. Booth, prosecuting, said that Finlayson brought a racing car in a pantechnicon from Italy. Underneath the cushions of the two front scats of the pantechnicon were lockers used as tool boxes. Finlayson said that they had never been opened, but when one was forced it was found to contain five bottles of wine ahd a number of car parts. Five more bottles and some car parts were discovered in the other locker. Finlayson then said, " It is nothing to do with me. The goods were put there by a friend in Italy." Other articles, including two bottles of brandy, were discovered after a piece of the floor of the pantechnicon had been lifted. Two sisters, Mrs. Bessie Paiess and Mrs. Fanny Reisner, were at the same court fined £lO each for attempting to evade payment of Customs duties. Mr. E. 11. Booth, for the Customs, said that the women arrived from Franco and stated that they had nothing to declare. Jn one bag an officer found a bottle of brandy, a flask full of brandy, and artificial silk praying mats and covers. The women said they had nothing more to declare, but a further considerable number of articles were discovered. Mrs. Paiess had a wholesale and retail business in Spitalfields, E. The women were going to stay with their father, the llev. H. Tobaehnick, who carried on a business in embroideries and synagogue vestments.