court letter

Convicted Driver Insurance

miserable

Member
I was arrested last Friday for drink driving. I blew 92 at the station and was held overnight. I caused a crash in which nobody was hurt (I crashed into a wall). I have NEVER, ever got in a car in my life before with a drink in me. Never. I am shocked and horrified that I committed such an act and have been struggling to cope over since.

I am writing a letter to the judge and was wondering how long this letter should be and what it should contain. I have started it but its getting longer and longer and I am now thinking it might be better off kept short. I just have so many elements of my life affected by this poor decision that I would like to get that across in how remorseful I am.

Any help would be much appreciated.
 
I was arrested last Friday for drink driving. I blew 92 at the station and was held overnight. I caused a crash in which nobody was hurt (I crashed into a wall). I have NEVER, ever got in a car in my life before with a drink in me. Never. I am shocked and horrified that I committed such an act and have been struggling to cope over since.

I am writing a letter to the judge and was wondering how long this letter should be and what it should contain. I have started it but its getting longer and longer and I am now thinking it might be better off kept short. I just have so many elements of my life affected by this poor decision that I would like to get that across in how remorseful I am.

Any help would be much appreciated.
hello i see you said you are writing a letter i would not bother it will not do anything atall just say through the duty solicitor that you are sorry and will never do it again a letter will not lessen your ban.. but other then that good luck
 
I can only add to what Ryan says above.

You will not see a judge, but a magistrate. Writing a letter to the magistrate will do little to change any of your sentencing. I was advised to get a letter from my employer, but I think it did little. They have guidelines on what to sentence you and unless you have very extreme mitigating circumstances or some sort of very strong case for needing to drive - you will always see a 12 month mandatory ban. You will be offered an alcohol awareness course which knocks a 1/4 off if you take it.

In your case. You blew 92. This immediately places you in the high risk offenders group (HRO), as you were above 87.5. This means probably a longer ban - probably 18 months to two years, but with a six month reduction if you take the course on two years. You will also HAVE to have a DVLA medical when you reapply for your license. See very recent threads - mine in particular for details on that process.

You may also get some community service.

The court cares very little for your remorse unfortunately, but check in with what you get. This forum is a wealth of information on what happens and what to do next.
 
Thanks guys. I am just a bit lost with it all and my solicitor at the police station advised that I do a letter and get some references.

My life has been ruined. This is all just so awful
 
Hello,

I wouldn't be so dismissive wrt letters and references.

I blew "only" 47 so a professional solicitor honestly told me that there was no point engaging him unless I didn't feel comfortable standing on my own in front of the court. However, multiple sources here advised to prepare both a remorseful speech and a character reference.

While preparing in written form my speech I ended up with something closer to a letter than to a sequence of statements more amenable to be used as the basis of a brief talk. It was a plea of mitigation the size of an A4 page (652 words) and while the character reference by my wife was short, the latter was anyway meant to be given to the magistrates rather than read.

In the end I've found also a nice duty solicitor who volunteered to be in court with me and do the speaking, while my plea and reference were handed over to the court. The speech by the solicitor has been a good complement to my documents as it was more the result of a Q&A session I had with her before the hearing, rather than an oral version of my plea. Nonetheless, her speech alone would have been pretty weak without my written letters.
Even though it was an unusually busy day at the court and I ended up being heard at the end of the afternoon after some serious and long cases, all three magistrates read my documents and, by looking at their facial expressions, they were indeed somehow moved and/or impressed by them. They definitely took all the time needed to fully read my letters.

The final sentence has been indeed lenient and I'm incline to believe that my documents had a positive impact on the court.

I would say that, at least, such documents don't hurt and, in my case, working at the plea was also a good exercise at reviewing what happened and its long reaching consequences.

By reading other posts in this forum, a reading of 92 would definitely suggest to play all your cards right to soften what will necessarily be a fairly stiff sentence.

Hope this helps.

Best regards and good luck,
Z
 
I wrote a letter to the bench, along with a couple of character references and both were commented on by the Magistrate as being sufficient to at lest keep me the right side of the jail wall, as this was the very worst option.
So I do think it is worth writing one.
 
I wrote a letter to the bench, along with a couple of character references and both were commented on by the Magistrate as being sufficient to at lest keep me the right side of the jail wall, as this was the very worst option.
So I do think it is worth writing one.
to be honest you're first offence drink driving you are never going to prison... unless the obvious you fail to stop cause a crash and hurt or kill someone
 
to be honest you're first offence drink driving you are never going to prison... unless the obvious you fail to stop cause a crash and hurt or kill someone


You are if you are drunk enough.
blow over 120 and you could well be incarcerated for it.
I wasn't that high quite, but not far off.

Letter writing and the Probation Officer's report most certainly helped me; as did the fact I had driven not more than 80 yards on the highway.
The PO made it clear I was not a dependent drinker or even prone to misuse (normally!), so it really was "too much beer and a bad idea".
 
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