WILD DRIVING AFTER BUST-UP WITH BROTHER
“I wasn’t paying much attention to my driving because I had just had a row with my brother” said Peter Connelly of Leamington, who was fined a heavy £25, and had his licenced endorsed by the court for dangerous driving.
It was stated that Connelly, who pleaded not guilty, was being followed by a police car when travelling along the Leamington Road towards Kenilworth on March 17th.
When he stopped at traffic lights in Leamington, he stalled the engine. By the time he had re-started the engine the lights had changed to red again but he still pulled away. With the blue light on, the policemen gave chase. They saw Connelly approaching a temporary set of traffic lights at Chesford bridge. Instead of waiting, he overtook a stationary car at the lights and proceeded across the bridge swerving all over the place and then turned sharp left. The police eventually caught up with him in the car park at the nearby Chesford Grange Hotel, where they felt his collar.
DATES WERE DIFFERENT
A Kenilworth woman motorist was fined a total of £8 for driving a car when a test certificate was not in force and for not having an excise licence. She is Anne McLellan of ‘Kingcroft’ in Red Lane, who pleaded quilty to the charges.
When McLellan was using her car in The Square on March 20th, P. C. Dick pointed out the offences to her. She replied; “I think my husband has the licence, but must have forgot to put it on the car”. (Yeah, right)
When she later produced the licence and test certificate at Kenilworth Police Station, there was a problem. Both documents were dated after the offences had occurred. (Oh dear….. Mrs McClellan)
FRIENDLY TOWARDS GYPSIES
A Kenilworth man who rented his caravan in Rouncil Lane to gypsies because, he said; “I feel we should help these people” was fined £5 at court for using land as a caravan site without a licence to do so. Before the bench was Norman Fox of Warwick Road, who pleaded guilty to the offence.
He was also charged with being £51 in arrears with his rates, which he was ordered to re-pay at £2-a-week. Exchanges between Kenilworth Council and Fox about the licence had been going on for some time. “The situation has become a complete farce and holds the local authority to ridicule” said Mr. C. Riley, Clerk of the Council.
Regarding the gypsies, Fox told the magistrates; “I feel we should help these people, they are pushed from one place to another and they get frightened. I have always had the idea that the Council are biased against these caravans”.
‘HARSH’ PENALTY SLASHED
An appeal was up-held at the recent Warwickshire Quarter Sessions bought by motorcyclist, 19-year-old Terry Vallance of Moseley Road. His solicitor stated that the 5 year driving ban imposed upon him by Kenilworth Magistrates a few months ago was an ‘un-duly harsh penalty’. The chairman of the quarter sessions, allowing the appeal, stating evidence had since come forward which had not previouly been presented at the Magistrates court hearing. Accordingly, he reduced his ban to just one year from the date of the appeal.
The evidence being that the brake pedal had sheered off his machine early on in the chain of events, so he could not stop. Vallance had pulled out and overtook a sports car which was in turn overtaking an un-lit parked car. He lost control and his machine mounted the offiside pavement, shot back across the road, took-out a hedge and then demolished a bollard. The accident happened near the Warwick-Leamington road juction at the bottom of Warwick Road.
His solicitor, Mr. Cox, stated he had been put into a sudden emergency when the sports car pulled out, he then careered over 200 yards along the road until he finally came to a halt. Vallance could not recall the accident because of injuries to his head, pelvis and ankle, he indicated that he did not want to ride motorcycles again but did seek to drive a car. (That’s wise)
JUVENILE GIRL CAUGHT ‘ON THE POP’
Her part-time job at a local cafe evidently caused a 14-year-old Kenilworth girl to work up a raging thirst. The place to quench her thirst came in the cellar of the premises and she took full advantage. At the juvenile court, she was charged with stealing eight bottles of ‘Baby Cham’ and 18 bottles of mineral water.
Inspector Albert Cox said the offences came to light when the cafe proprieter spotted bottle tops on the cellar floor. He knew no one had authority to open the bottles in the cellar. Suspecting something was untoward, he informed the police.
When the girl was questioned, she admitted it saying; “Yes sir, it was me, I took two bottles yesterday and three today. In all, I suppose I have taken twenty bottles”. The girl was given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay 30 shillings in court costs.
She does not work at the cafe anymore.
SHEEP WORRIER WAS SOON A DEAD DOG
Retribution descended rapidly on a black labrador which worried livestock. Within a few hours of its offence being discovered it had been destroyed, said Peter Roseby of Brooklyn Caravan Site in Leek Wootton.
At court, Roseby, the dog owner, was fined 10 shillings for not keeping his dog under control. The bench heard that sheep and lambs had been huddled into the corner of a field on the farm of Arthur Silk, which adjoined the caravan site. He noticed a black labrador amongst the flock which was worrying them. He fired his shotgun into the air and the dog ran off. When he inspected his sheep he found that a two-week old lamb had been severely injured and a number of sheep had been damaged.
UNPLEASANT PHEASANT DEATH
Feathers plucked from a poor old pheasant were literally on the bench at the latest juvenile court hearing. The bird had been shot by a ‘party’ of three boys from Coventry on April 15th.
But the trio had made a trio of mistakes. Firstly, they killed the bird out of the pheasant shooting season, which was from 1st October to 1st February. Secondly, they did not have a game licence and finally they were trespassing on the land on which they ‘bagged’ the bird. The three boys all pleaded quilty to the offences. Prosecuting, Inspector Albert Cox stated that they shot the bird and a squirrel on the 200 acre, Hurst Farm at Stoneleigh.
Mr George Powers, the tenant of the farm, saw the boys walking across a field carrying a dead hen pheasant and a squirrel. He went over to them and asked what they were doing, the boys said nothing. Mr Powers then carted them off to Kenilworth Police Station where they revealed the whole sorry story, the game was up. After the feathers had been plucked so that they could be presented as evidence, the bird was given to Mr Powers.
Mrs L. Smalley, presiding, warned the boys of the gravity of the offences, saying they could well have been fined up to £20 each for killing game. But they were ordered to only pay £4 each.
FAKE NAME WOMAN
A 24-year-old housewife, Ann Croal, a resident of flat No. 1, at “The Woodlands” in Birches Lane, appeared before the court on charges of obtaining money by credit fraud. The defendant also told the bench that she had been feeling lonely.
Inspector Albert Cox, said that Croal went to Morley’s Dairy shop in Warwick Road and asked for goods on credit. After it was explained to her that it was highly irregular, the proprietor gave her goods to the value of £2-11s-3d. Croal said her name was ‘Mrs Bull’ and also gave a false address.
On April 11th, she obtained 19 shillings worth of goods on credit from St. John’s Stores, also in Warwick Road, saying; “I’ll pay you tomorrow”. She gave the same name and another false address, 76, Birches Lane.
As a result of complaints, police made investigations and Detective-Sergeant J. H. Smart discovered that 76, Birches Lane was an empty bungalow. However, after further inquires, Croal was traced. At first she said; “No it was not me. I think you have made a mistake”. But she later admitted it, saying; “It was me, I had no money and I had to do something to get food”. Mrs Croal and her family, it was stated, had only lived in Kenilworth since March and didn’t have any friends here.
Mrs L. Smalley, presiding, said, “In Kenilworth there is no need to be lonely, there are plenty of clubs and women’s organisations”. She was put on probation for two years.