“ACT OF DRUNKEN FOLLY"

Taranaki Daily News, 13 July 1929, Page 22

“ACT OF DRUNKEN FOLLY"

AHMY Ol’l’lCEll STEALS COAT. By Telegraph—Press Association. Dunedin, July 12. Once a high officer in the Imperial Army and described by his counsel as “an English gentleman when sober and an English pest when drunk,” Edmund Harry Robert Lister appeared in the Police Court to-day on a charge of stealing an overcoat, valued at £5, which he borrowed and pawned. Air. White, for the accused, stated' that he was a remittance man of gentle birth for whom counsel had acted under power of attorney. During last week Lister broke out in a drinking bout. On previous occasions when drinking (at which time counsel refused him money) he had pawned goods, well knowing that his solicitor would redeem them. Had counsel known that this coat had been pawned he would have redeemed it. Describin 0 * th© offence as an act of drunken folly, the magistrate adjourned the charge for 12 months, to be called if accused’s conduct was unsatisfactory.