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Director Found Not Guilty of Stealing Tyres on H.P. Tippers
Page 35
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DETER COURTENAY, 39-year-old 1. company director, of Beaufort Avenue, Bispham, Blackpool, was at Blackpool Quarter Sessions last Friday cleared of charges of stealing 140 tyres and 20 spare wheels, together worth £5,027, the Property of S. J. Clay, Ltd., of Whitfield. He had pleaded not guilty.
Mr. F. J. Nance, prosecuting, said the case involved hire purchases of 20 seventon tipping vehicles worth £.1.500 each, with a total value of £30,000. On each vehicle were six wheels and •tyres, and a spare wheel andospare tyre.
It was alleged that the vehicles were ordered by Courtenay under hire-purchase agreements, and, hardly had they been made ready for delivery, when Courtenay, through his company, was advertising wheels and tyres for sale. The prosecution alleged that they were from the 20 vehicles.
Mr. Nance said Courtenay knew perfectly well that the tyres and wheels were not his •to dispose of until the vehicles became his property.
Detective Sergeant G. Leech told the court that Courtenay agreed he had sold most of the new tyres, but said he did not realize he was doing• anything wrong. He agreed that he did not get permission from the finance company, but said he thought he was perfectly within his rights in selling the tyres.
Miss Rose Heilbron, Q.C., defending, said that a lot of people would be surprised that by disposing of tyres which were unsuitable and replacing them with another set whether new, old or a different type, they were guilty of stealing as Courtenay was surprised. He sold the tyres quite openly to buy tyres at a cheaper rate as a business proposition.
Miss Heilbron submitted that if.Courtenay believed that he was entitled to do what he did, he was entitled to an acquittal.
It was difficult for an ordinary layman to construe the terms of a hire-purchase agreement and Courtenay genuinely believed that he was entitled to change the tyres, which were blowing out under heavy work on a building site at Liverpool, for less expensive tyres. Should he have waited until every new tyre on the 20 lorries burst before he put on the other tyres?
The prosecution, submitted Miss Ileilbron, had to prove that he took the tyres without a claim of right made in good faith. There were remedies in civil law to sue for damages, but this was not a case of stealing.
After an absence of 1 hour 10 minutes, the jury found Courtenay not guilty.