NO PRECEDENT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20720, 6 May 1937, Page 6

NO PRECEDENT

JURORS SUBSCRIBE PART OF FINE By Telegraph —Press Association WELLINGTON, May 5. After convicting a man in the Supreme Court to-day of breaking, entering and theft, the jurors subscribed part of the costs of the piosecution which he had been ordered to pay. Mr Justice Ostler had made payment of costs a condition of his release on probation. The Court officials accepted the money. The action of the jurors is unprecedented so far as can be readily ascertained in Wellington. The accused was Ronald Morris Chalmers, aged 26, a mechanic, and he was charged with breaking and entering by night the warehouse of the Tui Bottling Company. Ltd., and committing theft therein. The evidence showed accused waited outside the store while companions entered, one of the latter being employed in the store. They collected a sack of bottled beer which they were in the act of removing when caught by the police. , , , Counsel said the accused had assumed that one of his companions had authority to enter the store. He had no idea that the key used had been cut illegally. His Honour ordered the accused to pay the costs of the prosecution which would not have been Incurred had he pleaded guilty. The costs were £l7 18s, to be paid 10/- weekly. The case being the last on the calendar, the jurors were then paid their fees. After receiving them they left behind £2 18s contributed in various sums towards the costs of the prosecution.