Advice Needed!

Convicted Driver Insurance

miracle2000

New Member
I have recently been arrested for drink driving and would like some advice.

On a Friday night I attented a local pub at 11pm and left about 1am. I had parked my car outside a friends house and we walked to the pub. While at the pub I had consumed a double rum and pepsi twice, and just before I left I drank a quarter of a glass of a single rum and pepsi. Upon leaving the pub I went with some friends to a local party near to where my car was parked. We got there just little after 2am.

While at the party a friend was drinking from a small bottle which is known as "Magnum tonic wine". He explained that it was a stimulant which contained iron and vitamins. I had a sip and it tasted like bubble gum. As I did not want to drink anymore alcohol I decided to drink the Magnum tonic wine and I consumed 2 and a half bottles. I eventually left the party at 4am and drove home which was a 2 minute drive from my friends house. I was pulled over for speeding, breatherlised, failed the test and then arrested. Police did not take action for the speeding.

At the station my lowest reading for breathe was 46mg. I also conducted a urine test which having recently found out the results were 128mg, after attending my bail appearence. I have been charged for DD and will attend court on the 5th August. I have been driving for 14 years and this is my first DD offence. I currently have 6 points on my license (3 points speeding and 3 points defective tyre). I had a 6 month ban 4 years ago for totting up 12 points (non alcohol related).

If I plead guilty what length of ban am I looking at? Would I be able to go on a course to reduce the time of the ban? How much would the fine be even though I have been unemployed for 8 months?

I honestly did not know that the Magnum tonic wine contained alcohol. So I did not intentionally drink alcohol after leaving the pub at 1am. In my mind I had left the party at 4am and thought that I had not consumed alcohol for 3 hours. I did not feel tipsy or drunk. However I did feel some side affects from the tonic wine as it is a Viagral stimulant. This tonic wine was legal at the time and can be bought from most shops. It was only after that night I read the small print on the bottle which said 16% alcohol.

Thanks
 
I would also like to add that this offence happened on the 6th June. A few days before this I was told that my grandmother did not have long to live. She has been in constant care at the hospital since January this year. This is why I have always needed my car at hand just incase of any emergency at the hospital as we could have got a call at anytime. My grandmother eventually passed away on the 2nd July and I have documents to support her death. This is why on the night that I was arrested I did not intend to drink that much alcohol incase I had to make a hospital trip to see my grandmother.

I also have a 2 and a half year old son. I do not live with him but I do hold responsibilites of picking him up and dropping him to nursury 3 days a week. This is not walking distance.
 
I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother passing away. This is clearly something that has had a bearing on your actions that night so I would advise explaining the circumstances to the Court.

I will start by addressing the issue of the extra alcohol you had consumed. There is a provision in drink driving cases called special reasons, essentially whilst someone accepts that they drove whilst over the limit there are special circumstances about the offence, which if proven can avoid a disqualification. One of these is someone who has been driving after having their drinks 'spiked' i.e. unknowingly consuming alcohol. However based upon the information provided I do not think you would be able to argue this successfully. You don't seem to suggest that your friend said it was non-alcoholic, and in any event the drink has 'wine' in the title. It would therefore be very difficult to argue that you had no knowledge that you were consuming alcohol due to someone else's actions.

If you plead guilty to the allegation then you will face a mandatory disqualification of at least 12 months. The sentencing guidelines for your reading advise a 12-16 month disqualification and a Band C, means tested fine. Because this is your first offence you are likely to be offered the drink drive rehabilitation course, which will reduce the length of your disqualification by up to 25% upon completion. You can put forward mitigation to keep the sentence as low as possible and your employment status will be taken into consideration when the Court calculate the fine.
 
SeanJoyceStephensons said:
I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother passing away. This is clearly something that has had a bearing on your actions that night so I would advise explaining the circumstances to the Court.

I will start by addressing the issue of the extra alcohol you had consumed. There is a provision in drink driving cases called special reasons, essentially whilst someone accepts that they drove whilst over the limit there are special circumstances about the offence, which if proven can avoid a disqualification. One of these is someone who has been driving after having their drinks 'spiked' i.e. unknowingly consuming alcohol. However based upon the information provided I do not think you would be able to argue this successfully. You don't seem to suggest that your friend said it was non-alcoholic, and in any event the drink has 'wine' in the title. It would therefore be very difficult to argue that you had no knowledge that you were consuming alcohol due to someone else's actions.

If you plead guilty to the allegation then you will face a mandatory disqualification of at least 12 months. The sentencing guidelines for your reading advise a 12-16 month disqualification and a Band C, means tested fine. Because this is your first offence you are likely to be offered the drink drive rehabilitation course, which will reduce the length of your disqualification by up to 25% upon completion. You can put forward mitigation to keep the sentence as low as possible and your employment status will be taken into consideration when the Court calculate the fine.
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Thanks for the reply Sean.

I would just like to say that I am not using my Grandmothers condition as an excuse for that night, as I did not intend to be over the DD limit incase of any emergency phone calls from the hospital. I understand others may think I wanted to get hammered because of my Grandmother but this was not the case lol.

If you ask someone what is a Budweiser they would say its a beer...if you ask someone what is Bacardi they would say its a rum...but when I asked my friend what is a Magnum he said it was a stimulation tonic, hence the reason why I did not know it contained alcohol. I breifly read the bottle and it said "Magnum - Tonic Wine - with irons and vitamins - made with Vigorton - shake well". As I did feel a little tipsy at 2am I did not read the "the very small print" on the bottle to know it contained alcohol and also because the Garden we was in was not lit. I poured the Magnum drink into a plastic cup (bottle size is 200ml) an and for the next 2 hours consumed 2 and a half cups of what I thought was just a liquid tonic. Most alcoholic drinks will have the alcohol percentage in big fonts but this bottle didnt.

I have to appear in court on the 5th August and I have not approached a Solicortor yet. Is this something I should do and is legal aid still available? Or would the court offer me a duty solicortor?

Thanks.
 
I understand what you are saying regarding the tonic wine. However regardless of how small the print regarding alcohol percentage, the bottle does clearly have 'wine' in the title. From the information provided it doesn't seem as though you asked your friend if it contained alcohol, nor did you check the bottle to see if it did. Whilst I accept that you did not know it contained alcohol, the Court will almost certainly say that you should have checked before making the assumption that it did not.

I would not expect legal aid to be available in your case, normally for drink driving offences there needs to be a risk of 'loss of liberty' e.g. a custodial sentence. Because your reading is only low I would not think that the Court would grant legal aid. The duty solicitor will be at Court however they will give priority to the most serious offences and may only be able to give you some general guidance rather than represent you in the hearing. The only other option is to instruct a solicitor on a privately funded basis.
 
SeanJoyceStephensons said:
I understand what you are saying regarding the tonic wine. However regardless of how small the print regarding alcohol percentage, the bottle does clearly have 'wine' in the title. From the information provided it doesn't seem as though you asked your friend if it contained alcohol, nor did you check the bottle to see if it did. Whilst I accept that you did not know it contained alcohol, the Court will almost certainly say that you should have checked before making the assumption that it did not.

I would not expect legal aid to be available in your case, normally for drink driving offences there needs to be a risk of 'loss of liberty' e.g. a custodial sentence. Because your reading is only low I would not think that the Court would grant legal aid. The duty solicitor will be at Court however they will give priority to the most serious offences and may only be able to give you some general guidance rather than represent you in the hearing. The only other option is to instruct a solicitor on a privately funded basis.
Click to expand...

Once again thanks for the reply but I have one last question.

So if it was the case that I was drinking alcohol up until 4am (i thought I had not consumed since 1am)....and I got pulled over just 2 minutes after I left the party...are the police not supposed to allow me 20 minutes until I take the roadside breathe test as I had just consumed alcohol a few minutes before?
 
The roadside breathalyser is not an evidentiary breath test, therefore the police will have used the readings from the breathalyser at the station which should have been at least 20 minutes after you have last consumed alcohol.
 
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