Some advice please...

[smithma0]

Good morning

My wife made a huge error of judgement Friday night and drove our car home 2 miles from a party. She was stopped by the police, breath tested and charged with a reading of 79.

I would like advice as to what punishment she is likely to receive, both in terms of ban length and fine.

She is a housewife with no personal income - she gets housekeeping from me monthly. We have 2 school age children and we live in a remote area (5 miles to nearest town, 2.5 miles to schhol. No shops or amenitied in village). School transport is not going to be a issue as we live within a free school bus area, but other activites will be severly restricted. Not having a licence will also all but remove any chance of her getting employment, something which we had planned to do after the summer.

Any advice gratefully received!

 

[gutted]

She will be banned for about 18 months and will be given a fine. Your income will be taken into account when the fine is calculated. There is no way out of the ban, I'm afraid.

 

[redzed]

As gutted said, you can also look up your likely punishment here,

http://www.drinkdriving.org/drink_driving_sentencing_guidelines.php

As long as this is her only dd offence in 10 years she'll be offered the dd rehab course by the magistrates which will reduce her ban by 25%.

If she pleads guilty and they are no aggravating circumstance, ie, no insurance, crashing the car etc she'll more than likely end up with a ban of just under 13 months.

Obviously the magistrates prefer a guilty plea as this will reduce court time and costs.

When she makes her appearance in court she must dress smartly, show deep remorse and be polite/humble at all times.

ps, I haven't been charged yet but my bail runs out on the 7th July where, unless my bail is cancelled, I'll be charged with something,
dont know what yet, it'll either be dd or being drunk in charge...it's amazing what you can learn about dd when you have to.

 

[SeanJoyceStephensons]

The sentencing guidelines say that for Breath readings of 79 mg a ban of between 17and 22 months should be imposed, along with a financial penalty.

The lenght of ban is up to the Magistrates depending on how they view the case as a whole and a 17 month ban is not guaranteed! However, it is likely to be between 17 - 22 months on the basis of the information outlined. Having a good lawyer could mean that it could be lower than 17 months with the course further lowering it! We have achieved this for client's in the past with higher readings.


The punishment that the court impose will be influenced by any aggravating or mitigating factors.

It is vital that your wife arrives at court prepared, with a lawyer she has met before hand who is well briefed and ready to argue her corner. The Duty Solicitor scheme will not cover your wife in this case as she is not facing a custodial sentence. If shes does not secure the services of a Solicitor beforehand she will be unrepresented at Court.


My advice would be to pay to speak to her own solicitor of choice before the hearing, take advice about what evidence and references etc she should take to court and provide her solicitor with all the information he or she needs to prepare what they are going to say in advance. This sort of preparation will help to put your and your wife's mind at ease that she is getting good quality advice and representation.


We provide a nationwide service representing clients in any Magistates Court in England or Wales. Call us on *_0845 0020736_* if you or your wife would like to get more detailed free initial advice over the telephone from one of our specialist legal advisors.
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