INTOXICATION CHARGE

Southland Times, Issue 24630, 30 December 1941, Page 4

INTOXICATION CHARGE

LABOURER FINED £2O

A fine of £2O was imposed on Patrick Brown, labourer, in the Invercargill Magistrate’s Court yesterday on a charge of being in a state of intoxication while .in charge of a motor-car. The Magistrate, Mr R. C. Abernethy, said it was a borderline case between gaol and a fine. Fortunately for the accused he had not injured anyone.

The charge was that on December - 24 the accused was found in a state ol intoxication while in charge of a motorcar on the North road, Waikiwi. He was also charged with failing to have a current warrant of fitness. Brown, who was represented by Mi' R. T. Meredith, pleaded guilty to both charges. Senior-Sergeant W. T. Kelly said that two traffic officers while on patrol saw the accused driving his car in an erratic manner on the North road, Waikiwi. The officers turned and followed him, sounding theii' siren. The accused then seemed to lose control of his car and nearly ran into the patrol car. He was taken to the police station, where he was examined by a doctor, who certified that he was moderately intoxicated. The accused had not been before the Court before. The warrant of fitness expired on October 15.

Mr Meredith said Brown was employed at a lime works near Winton. On Christmas Eve he was coming into town to put his car away in a garage because of the petrol restrictions. He was not a drinking man and rarely touched liquor. On Christmas Eve Brown was working till well after midday. Some of his mates had liquor at work and unfortunately he was persuaded to take some. He had not had any more liquor that day. He had spent the night in the lock-up and was released on Christmas morning. Mr Meredith suggested that a monetary penalty would be sufficient to meet the case, and, seeing that it was not a bad case of intoxication, he asked the Court to make the penalty as light as possible The accused was a single man earning 21/- a day. The Magistrate said it was a borderline case. It seemed to him that the accused had been in a fairly dangerous state of intoxication and that he had had a fair amount of liquor that day. The accused had been fortunate to the extent that he had not injured anyone and he thought a fine would meet the case. The accused would be fined £2O with 12/6 costs. In addition his driver’s licence would be cancelled and he would be debarred for 12 months from obtaining another. On the charge of failing to have a current warrant of fitness he would be convicted and ordered to pay 10/- costs. Mr Meredith said that the accused would pay half the fine immediately. A month in which to pay the balance was allowed. MONTH’S IMPRISONMENT (P.A.) AUCKLAND, December 29. “We are in a state of emergency now, and if ever there was an occasion when a motorist must observe the law strictly by refraining from alcoholic liquor it is now,” said the Magistrate, Mr J. H. Luxford, in sentencing Edward Ellis Edward Edwards, aged 38, a motor driver, to one month’s imprisonment and cancelling his licence for 12 months for being intoxicated while in charge of a motor-van in Sturdee street on December 24.

Defending counsel said Edwards was a married man with two children and that he worked for his mother. When delivering milk on Christmas Eve morning he accepted wine from a customer. “This is not your first offence. You were fined 16 years ago for a similar offence,” the Magistrate told Edwards.