SMUGGLED CIGARETTES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26026, 14 December 1945, Page 4

SMUGGLED CIGARETTES

SEAMAN FINED £25 SUPPLY OBTAINED AT PACIFIC STATION (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Ded 13. Walter Henry Boddington, a member of the crew of the Wahine, was fined £25 by Mr J. L. Stout, S.M., to-day, for smuggling 8400 American cigarettes ashore at Auckland. The prosecution stated that the defendant had declared that he was bringing half a pound of tobacco ashore, but the cigarettes were found when the suitcases which Boddington and another man were bringing ashore were examined. Counsel for the defence, Mr A. J. Mazengarb, said that the defendant had purchased a quantity of wine when the Wahine went to the Islands to bring back air force personnel, and had exchanged it with Americans at Tulagi for cigarettes. He intended to sell ■- enough to pay for the wine and give the rest away. “ Certain military and other service personnel have smuggled goods in and it is quite wrong. We Know that,” said Mr Mazengarb, “ but they haye not regarded it in the serious light in which the Legislature does.”