A TRIVIAL MATTER

Waikato Times, Volume 110, Issue 18433, 14 September 1931, Page 8

A TRIVIAL MATTER

MAGISTRATE DISMISSES CHARGE. CONVERSION OF A HORSE. Holding that . the charge was a trivial one, Mr Wyvern Wilson, S.M., In the Hamilton Magistrate’s Court this mprning, refused to convict on a charge of conversion of a horse, to which Alfred John Milton Brien, a butcher, aged 26 years, pleaded guilty. The facts of the case, as outlined by Senior-Sergeant Sweeney, were that on September 12 complainant, Frank Grumberg, a drover, was approached by defendant for a loan of the horse. Permission was refused, and going out a little later complainant noticed that the horse was missing. The police were informed, and the horse was subsequently discovered by Constable Aplin at Gordonton in defendant’s possession. Asked if he had anything to say, defendant, from the dock, explained that an arrangement existed betwe’en himself and complainant by which he could have the horse when he wanted it. Complainant had had the use of his horse for some time. When he asked for the horse he was told that he could not have It because it was lame. Finding this to be incorrect he had taken the horse.

I-lis Worship, in amending defendant’s plea to “not guilty," dismissed the charge as trivia) and declined to make any order regarding costs. The two men were known to each other, in his opinion, and there seemed to be some arrangement between them which one went back upon.