SERIOUS VIEW TAKEN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 62, 16 March 1943, Page 6

SERIOUS VIEW TAKEN

LICENCE LOANED FOR HIRE OF RENTAL CAR TWO MEN FINED FOR AIDING AND ABETTING “I cannot take the view that this is a trivial matter; it is a very serious offence to give a driver’s licence to an unlicensed person to enable him to rent a car,” said Mr. J. H. Salmon, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court, Wanganui, yesterday, when Thomas Percival William Tunbridge and Kenneth Jory Reeves were charged with aiding and abetting in the commission of an offence by Gordon Hobbs, in that he was loaned a driver’s licence to enable him to hire a motor vehicle. Each defendant was fined £3, costs 10s. A plea of guilty was entered in each case.

Senior-Sergeant F. Culloty, who prosecuted, said Reeves was at the Federal Hotel on February 20 when he was approached by a solider in uniform whom he knew as Gordon. This man represented that he was on final leave and wanted to hire a car, but had left his licence in camp. Reeves said he did not have a licence, but would see Tunbridge. As a result. Tunbridge loaned Gordon an old licence dated 18/4/41 and issued for Army vehicles. In a statement to the police Tunbridge said he did not treat the matter seriously as he was aware the licence was valueless. The senior-sergeant added that on production of the licence Gordon subsequently rented a car from a Wanganui man and drove to Hawera. On February 24 he was arrested at New Plymouth on other charges. Mr. C. F. Treadwell, who appeared for both defendants, submitted that Reeves and Tunbridge would not have assisted Gordon, whose real name was Hobbs, if he had not been on final leave. The licence was not for the current year, and if the service station proprietor had scrutinised it the car would not have been hired. Tunbridge had been in the Army, but was released for essential work, and Reeves was a returned soldier from the present war.

An unlicensed driver might causa considerable damage to property or even life, and no person in possession of a licence had any right to nart with it. said the magistrate, imposing a fine on each defendant. It was true that it was an old licence which applied only to Army trucks, but it was difficult to understand how the renter had accepted it. “There is far too much carelessness in regard to the rental of cars to unqualified drivers,” the magistrate added. Liquor Near Dance Hall Reeves also admitted a charge of being in possession of a bottle of ale near the Aotea Dance Hal], Putiki. while a dance was in progress, and was fined £2. costs 10s. Senior-Ser-geant Culloty said that at 12.30 a.m. on February 27, Constable C. Dudley found accused in the vicinity ot the hall. He was with two Maoris and was drinking from a bottle of beer which he said he had purchased the previous afternoon.