BUILDER FINED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26848, 12 August 1948, Page 6

BUILDER FINED

BREACHES OF REGULATIONS SHARP COMMENT FROM BENCH P.A WELLINGTON, Aug. 11. A builder, Thomas Ewen Reese, of Stokes Valley, was fined £2OO in the Magistrate’s Court at Lower Hutt today by Mr J. S. Hanna, S.M., for proceeding with the construction of a house other than in accordance with a permit issued by the building controller. W R. Birks, building controller, said the defendant had used about 21 tons of cement in excess for a house and retaining walls. He asked for a conviction, with the maximum penalty, and said that the time had come when imprisonment might be the only real way to deal with breaches of the building regulations. For Reese, Mr Gibson said that the defendant had been having great trouble in finding living accommodation for himself and his family. He was now living in an uncompleted upper part of a house, which was not weatherproof. “The defendant has simply set the . gulations at naught,” said the magistrade. “Apart from this being a flagrant breach of the regulations, his conduct is grossly unfair to other builders and people loyally abiding by the law.” For constructing a concrete retaining wall without a permit, Reese was convicted and fined £lO. On two other related charges he was convicted and ordered to pay costs.