By PAUL YANDALL
The final chapter in a three-year saga to save the Matamata District Services Memorial Club should be written today.
The club faces fines totalling more than $20,000 after the Land Transport Safety Authority charged it with operating an unlicensed taxi service and allowing an unlicensed driver to run the service.
The charges stem from a sting operation launched by two authority officers in November 1996 to catch the driver of the club's courtesy coach, John Moore, accepting money for delivering people.
Charges brought against Mr Moore were dismissed in the Tokoroa District Court two weeks ago after Judge Philip Cooper found that a $5 donation proferred by one of the authority officers was never asked for.
The chairman of the club, Brian Price, said that, if the judge ruled in the authority's favour today, the club's 550 members, most of them returned servicemen, would have to find somewhere else to gather.
"We'd have to consider whether our doors could stay open. It wouldn't look good for us."
Mr Price said the club would not be able to pay the large fine without selling practically everything.
"I don't think our members could tolerate that at all."
But he said he was confident the decision made two weeks ago would be repeated in the same court today.
Mr Moore said he would be at the court to support all the old warriors who had turned up at his court hearing.
"They were there for me, so I'm going to make sure that I'm there for them."
A spokesman for the authority, Craig Dowling, said it was still looking at the possibility of appealing against Judge Cooper's decision.
Pat Herbert, chief executive of the Returned Services Association, said the use of courtesy coaches was on trial today and a decision against the club would have implications for the RSA's 130,000 members.
"We use them primarily for welfare, for taking people to the hospital, for visiting cemeteries."
Mr Herbert said if the decision went against the club, the RSA would seek a law change to allow it to operate courtesy coaches.
D-day arrives for RSA 'taxi' case
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