Women for Trial on Fuel Charges
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AWOMAN and her daughter, who
• operated a service station at Selside. near Kendal, were last week committed by Kendal County Bench for trial in April at Westmorland Quarter Sessions on charges concerning the supply of oil fuel to a heavy goods vehicle travelling between Glasgow and London :o August last.
They were Mrs. Clarice Tomlinson, of the Selside Service Co., Selside, and Ann Tomlinson, of the same address. Mrs. Tomlinson was charged with procuring 16s. 2d. to be paid by the Scottish Co-operative Society to the Esso Petroleum Co., Ltd., by falsely representing on is delivery note that 39 gallons of oil fuel had been supplied to a vehicle owned by the S.C.S. when only 35 gallons had been put in.
The daughter, Ann Tomlinson, was charged with procuring, 85, id. oy falsely representing that 20 gallons were put into a vehicle, whereas only 18 gallons had been delivered, and two similar offences involving 8s. Id., by representing that 22 gallons had been delivered instead of 20, and 12s. 14-d. by representing that 27 instead of 24 gallons had been delivered.
They elected for trial by jury and, after hearing the evidence for the prosecution, submitted that there was no case to answer. They were committed for trial and each allowed £25 bail.
A transport manager of the S.C.S., Mr. H. Macdonald Dick, said that suspicions had been aroused for some time because the fuel-consumption rate of certain vehicles had increased. When a driver named Thomas Johnson left the Glasgow depot for London on August 25, the tanks were dipped and showed 33 gallons. Subsequently a delivery note signed by C. Tomlinson and T. Johnson was received for 39 gallons, but the distance to Kendal was about 140 miles and the tanks would not hold 39 gallons, assuming the vehicle used a gallon to eight miles. Johnson, when spoken to, admitted receiving 35 gallons and signing for 39. The police were informed.
Thomas Johnson, of Dumbarton Road, Dalmuir West, Dunbartonshire, cave evidence that on August 25 he
received 35 gallons and signed for 39 and was paid 12s.
Mr. Richmond Jones, submitting that there was no case to answer on all the charges, said that it would be wrong to commit Mrs. Tomlinson on the uncorroborated evidence of Johnson. There was no statement to show she had served any fuel, no evidence as to how much was put into the lorry on August 25. and some difficulty in deciding the date.
Kendal County Bench the same day put on probation for three years, with an order for payment of £3 costs, Thomas Johnson, aged 31, Dumbarton Road, Dalmuir West, who had pleaded guilty to six charges of procuring money by falsely representing that a certain quantity of fuel had been delivered into
the tanks of his vehicle, owned by the S.C.S., at Selside. The dates were in February, March and August and the sums ranged from 8s. Id. to 16s. 2d.