FALSE FIRE ALARM

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23545, 4 January 1940, Page 10

FALSE FIRE ALARM

TWO YOUNG MEN CHARGED Charges of being drunk and giving a false alarm of fire from a box at the corner of Albert Street and Cook Street. City, at 4.41 a.m. yesterday, Mere preferred against Albert Leslie. Pinfold, labourer, aged 23, and Richard j David Hayes, hotel worker, aged 28, .in the Police Court vesterday, before Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M. Pinfold denied both charges, and Hayes, who denied the charge alleging a false alarm, admitted drunkenness. Evidence was given that six lire engines answered the false alarm, which cost about £"o for each engine. When the first engine arrived less than a minute after the alarm, the two accused, who were drunk, were fseen walking away from the box, and just before that they were seen near the box by another young man. Both accused gave evidence that they were walking home from a party in Newmarket when they were questioned by the deputy-superintendent of the fire brigade. Mr. G. A. McKenzie. They said they did not know where the alarm box was situated, and denied that they broke it open. The magistrate held that liquor was to blame for Ihe offence, which could not have been committed except by the two accused, who were seen near the alarm. Each accused was fined £2 10s for giving a false alarm. Hayes was fined £1 for drunkenness and Pinfold 10s.