HEAVY PENALTY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19933, 18 October 1934, Page 6

HEAVY PENALTY

COUNCILLOR FINED £248 Penalties totalling £248 were imposed by the Chief Justice of Victoria; Sir William Irvine, recently, on Benjamin Beaconsfield Issell, East Melbourne, for having wrongfully acted as a councillor of Williamstown Council. The money will go into the municipal fund. Action was taken against Issell by George Alexander Paine, of Newport, a member of the council, who alleged that Issell had wrongfully exercised the functions of a councillor on 124 occasions.

The Chief Justice imposed a penalty of £2 for each occasion, exercising the descretion given him to modify the maximum penalty of £SO for each occasion, provided for in the Local Government Act. The Chief Justice said that Issell was not qualified for the position of councillor, because he was merely a ratepayer as the nominee of a proprietary company. “I am unable to accede to the request for nominal penalties,” continued His Honour. “I am not satisfied that Issell concerned himself to ascertain by legal advice, or otherwise, whether his position as representative of the company carried with it the necessary qualifications for election as a councillor.

“It is the business of those who desire to take on their shoulders the public responsibilities of so important an office, to take care to ascertain whether they possess the necessary qualification, and this Issell did not do.”