Guilty or not guilty?

Convicted Driver Insurance

shapeshifter1963

New Member
Hi there. My boyfriend was stopped a few days ago, and registered positive at 60mcg. He'd had 4 x 125ml glasses of wine between 8-10.30pm. He was stopped at 1.06am. According to your calculator, he should have registered at 30mcg - 52 yr old male, 60kg, wine and time drank.
Now, he works as a spray polisher, uses solvents all of the time, and he also has asthma. He uses 2 different inhalers, numerous times a day, as his job exacerbates his condition.

He took both inhalers at 11pm, then at 1pm. From what I've read, his inhaler could influence the breathalyser reading.

We were considering pleading not guilty, and getting a forensic scientist to determine whether the result was inflated, due to his meds.

A solicitor he's spoken to, basically said, plead guilty, the courts don't like time wasters. We genuinely believe he was below the limit, but not we're unsure what to do.

The solicitor was very rude and unsympathetic and didn't seem particularly interested in supporting him at court with a not guilty plea.

What would you recommend in this instance, please?

Could you email a reply, is that ok? I'm a bit deaf, so don't like using phones, and my boyfriend can't use his phone at work.
Thank you very much. Elaine x
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi Elaine,

Breathalyser results can be influenced by certain factors, although they are now designed to detect a number of things that would interfere with the accuracy of their reading. Whether or not solvents may have had any impact on the accuracy of the reading I cannot say. I have however dealt with cases involving inhalers and there possible impact on the validity of any breathalyser reading. In my experience the majority of machines would be expected to detect any impact from an inhaler, and alongside this an inhaler will typically only have an impact for a very short space of time after it is used, usually less than 20 minutes. One of the questions the police specifically ask is whether the person has inhaled anything within the last 20 minutes, and will wait if necessary before conducting the breathalyser test.

This is not to say that there is not another factor which has influenced the alcohol levels in your boyfriend's system. However as you have mentioned, the only practical way of confirming this is to instruct an expert to prepare a report on the matter and see what this says.

If you are still interested in representation then please feel free to contact my department on 0333 999 7158.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Enter code DRINKDRIVING10 during checkout for 10% off
Top