Need help in court: I hit a police officer and was charged with drink driving

Convicted Driver Insurance

jess1558

New Member
I was driving and whilst pulling away from a T-junction I hit (though very minerly) a police officer who was stood by the side of the road wearing all black. After I hit him I was breathalysed and was found to be 84mgs over the limit. I was taken to the police station and was detained for 8 hours and then released and now I have been told to appear in a magistrates on Tuesday. I am unable to get a lawyer due to limited finances and I have no idea what to say in court. I have been told I will get anywhere between 17-22 months without a licence. Will I get prison time for this? I am unsure if this matters but I am suffering from stress and anxiety as well as a 'significant depressive episode'. What should I say? I have 2 children who rely on me to get them to school and would like to get my driving restriction limited, would I be able to do community service to limit this? Thankyou
 
I am working on the assumption that you have only been charged with driving with excess alcohol, if this is not the case please let me know and I will revisit my advice.

You are correct in saying that a reading of 84 places you in the bracket of a 17-22 month disqualification, and this would normally also induce a Band C fine. However there is a significant aggravating factor as you have collided with a pedestrian, and it does not help matters that it was a police officer. For clarity the bracket that you fall into covers readings from 60-89 in breath so you are already towards the top end of this. The chances of keeping the length of the ban down to the lowest end of this bracket is very remote in the circumstances.

You should however still be offered the opportunity to attend the drink drive rehabilitation course, which would reduce the length of your disqualification by up to 25% upon completion. Similarly you can also present mitigation to the Court to try and keep the sentence as low as possible, this can be based on things such as your reliance on your driving license and the difficulty a disqualification will cause you.
 
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