need advice

[dgmlon]

I have to appear at magistrates court on Friday for drink driving. It is my 1st offence. The blood reading was 80 out of 100. I fully cooperated with the police when I was stopped and released within 3 hours and allowed to drive home. I had been out with friends for a drink and realise how stupid it was to drive, but it was the 3rd anniversary of my daughter's brain injury (no excuse, I know). My daughter is going back into hospital for more treatments to try and cure her brain illness (rare brain disease) and as a single parent of two children and being self-employed, I will need to both care for her, my son and, if she is not too ill, continue working. A driving ban will severely restrict my ability to do the above. Is this considered mitigating circumstances? If not, might the court be willing to consider delaying the ban until she is safely home from hospital?

 

[SeanJoyceStephensons]

The law in relation to drink driving is strict. If convicted the offence carries a mandatory ban for a minimum of 12 months, although this increases as the alcohol level increases. The sentencing guidelines can be found at: http://www.drinkdriving.org/drink_driving_sentencing_guidelines.php

If convicted then a disqualification is inevitable, although your mitigation may help persuade the court to keep the length of the ban towards the lower end of the tarif a ban.

The ban will begin from the moment you plead guilty. The only way to delay the start of the ban is to plead not guilty. You can always change your plea later in the proceedings. However, an early guilty plea entitles you to credit in the form of a reduced punishment.