Advice please

[Roxybuds]

Advice wanted please:
My husband was involved in a minor road collision in March and was charged with failure to provide a specimen. He was guilty as he drove after having 4 diazepams, at the lime he had just been diagnosed with kidney cancer and on the day of the accident he was told he would be going into hospital the following Weds for a kidney removal and he was also required to do a brain MRI as the CT was not clear and they were concerned as he had a history of headaches. At the time the police wanted him to do blood or urine, he can't do blood as even the hospital struggles to get blood from him so they wanted urine. he refused as the the 12 months before this incident he was struggling to urinate ( he would get urge but couldn't go) we thought this could have been from the kidney cancer although not a common side effect. Anyway he saw a local solicitor who advised him to plea not guilty and get medical evidence, he did this and we then got a date for trial. In the meantime he asked his cancer consultant who said his urinating problem could be from the cancer but he was unwilling to provide any letter as he said he wasn't allowed to do this.
In the meantime he has been under our local GP for depression and a few weeks ago he had an accident and broke his shoulder which has led to him been even more depressed. He also went down to half pay so had to let solicitor go and defend himself. He went to court and they advised him to plead guilty which he did as he had no evidence they then gave him a 2 year ban and an electronic tag curfew for 8 weeks Sat-sun 7pm - 7am. It seems very harsh to me and I was wondering if he should look to appeal ?
He knows he is guilty and he is lucky he did not get prison time but I still can't help feel they have been very harsh

Also the day of the accident he was on his way back from dentist after having two tooth removals, the reason he went to dentist as his doc told him it might be worth getting his teeth sorted in case he had to have further treatment after surgery

Any advice?

 

[SeanJoyceStephensons]

The problem you face is that for a deliberate refusal to provide a specimen (which it appears this was) the Magistrates sentencing guidelines advise a 17-28 month disqualification. It is also a the discretion of the Court as to whether they impose a fine or a community order. Therefore it does not appear that you could argue the sentence passed was manifestly excessive, and indeed the disqualification was at the lower end of the sentencing range.

Your husband has an automatic right of appeal for 21 days from the date of sentence but if he were simply looking to appeal the severity of the sentence, I would not think he was likely to be successful. It is also worth noting that the Crown Court could choose to increase the severity of the sentence, rather than decrease it.