Suspected of drink driving - failed to provide specimen?

Convicted Driver Insurance

audiwales

New Member
Hi,

Last weekend I was on a night out with my friends. I drove us all to the club and I left my car on a street a few minutes walk away. I was not planning on driving home at all and ha a lift sorted for the end of the night (and planning on picking my car up the day later).

Night was over - a group of us (5) - 3 of them first went in to the lift and I was waiting with one friend for him to return. In this time we both stupidly sat in my car and waited - when noticing my car was actually parked on double yellows. I was told and advised by my friend to quickly just move it round the corner on to a street - I stupidly agreed to do this, moved it round the corner (literally under 20metres distance. Not far at all.) Stopped round the corner and took the keys out the ignition.

Sitting in the car and a good 20 seconds later the police stop next to me, no blue lights and tell me to get out of the car and to blow into the test. I refused this as I clearly knew I was over the limit - so thought what could possibly go even more wrong? I refused this and I got arrested. I got taken to the police station and put in a holding cell. They asked me to do another test and I refused again stupidly. I then got shoved into a cell and stayed overnight.

In the morning I realised that after speaking to a solicitor I'm now going to get charged for failing to provide a specimen.. which sounds as if its a worse offence than drinking and driving - and it's even more annoying that I didn't plan on driving - and that my lift had arrived 5 minutes later of me getting arrested!

I am 20 years old - been driving for over 2 years with a clean license - and require my own car for my job, as I work shift work and on-call work (early, late shift and weekends). I've read up alot on this and I am clueless to what is going to happen to me - but by the sounds of most things I have read, my life is going to go downhill. I won't be able to support myself, I'll be in debt, I'll have no job and honestly I have no clue what to do.

What would anyone advise ? What is the best possible thing that could happen to me? I need help please.
 
If you had provided a specimen of breath it may have been possible to argue a special reasons plea based upon the shortness of distance driven. Unfortunately as you have refused to provide a specimen this plea would no longer be available to you.

For a deliberate refusal to provide a specimen of breath, the Magistrates sentencing guidelines advise the imposition of a 17-28 month disqualification and either a Band C fine or a community order. The sentence will also be affected by how drunk the police believe that you were at the time of the offence, although you can present mitigation based upon the fact that you only drove a short distance. Presumably the police have seen this and can corroborate your account regarding the distance driven.

You can also explain your personal circumstances to the Court and ask that the Court take these into consideration in respect of the sentence that they are going to impose. If this is going to cause you to lose your job then it may be worth asking your employers to provide a reference confirming that this will be the case.
 
SeanJoyceStephensons said:
If you had provided a specimen of breath it may have been possible to argue a special reasons plea based upon the shortness of distance driven. Unfortunately as you have refused to provide a specimen this plea would no longer be available to you.

For a deliberate refusal to provide a specimen of breath, the Magistrates sentencing guidelines advise the imposition of a 17-28 month disqualification and either a Band C fine or a community order. The sentence will also be affected by how drunk the police believe that you were at the time of the offence, although you can present mitigation based upon the fact that you only drove a short distance. Presumably the police have seen this and can corroborate your account regarding the distance driven.

You can also explain your personal circumstances to the Court and ask that the Court take these into consideration in respect of the sentence that they are going to impose. If this is going to cause you to lose your job then it may be worth asking your employers to provide a reference confirming that this will be the case.
Click to expand...

What would you honestly expect them to say to me and what outcome this will have? I am planning on getting a solicitor because this is going to ruin a minimum of 1 year of my life, double my already expensive insurance premium for another 5 years, have a criminal record and the list goes on.

For a first time offender and a clean license - is there any chance that they would do this? I wasn't aware that not providing a specimen would get me in such trouble. I refused because I was annoyed and didn't think I could be worse off from not doing it..
 
Realistically the best case scenario in your case is likely to be a 17 month disqualification reduced with your attendance on the rehabilitation course. Having representation can certainly help to mitigate the sentence imposed by the Court.

If your employers can provide a reference confirming that you will lose your job then the Court will take this into consideration in respect of any fine that they impose. They may also be minded to keep the disqualification to the lower end as you are already being punished for the offence by the repercussions and there is less reason for them to impose a severe sentence.

If you are interested in representation you are welcome to contact my department on 0333 999 7158.
 
SeanJoyceStephensons said:
Realistically the best case scenario in your case is likely to be a 17 month disqualification reduced with your attendance on the rehabilitation course. Having representation can certainly help to mitigate the sentence imposed by the Court.

If your employers can provide a reference confirming that you will lose your job then the Court will take this into consideration in respect of any fine that they impose. They may also be minded to keep the disqualification to the lower end as you are already being punished for the offence by the repercussions and there is less reason for them to impose a severe sentence.

If you are interested in representation you are welcome to contact my department on 0333 999 7158.
Click to expand...

Thank you for this. One last question would be due to that I was 'suspected of driving'. In court would the police need to prove this, or would I simply need to prove that I wasn't? How does this work? If they don't have evidence of me driving - would this change anything? I was sitting in the drivers seat - the engine wasn't on and the keys were not in the ignition. There were no blue lights and I did not get pulled over.

Would they need to provide evidence of this - or is it simply I need to prove I didn't?

Thank you
 
The police do not have to see you driving to be able to request a specimen of breath from you, although if they have seen you driving this would make the point null and void in any event. For example they may have seen you when they were travelling in the opposite direction, stopped and driven after you. Or a member of the public may have stated to them that you had driven the vehicle around the corner. The difficulty in this part of the case is that you cannot actively raise an issue as to whether you were driving the vehicle. As you accept that you drove the vehicle (albeit a short distance) the most you could do is request that the prosecution prove that you drove. You could not actively state that you hadn't.

If the police could not prove that you drove the vehicle then there is an alternative charge of failing to provide a specimen whilst in control of a vehicle rather than whilst driving/attempting to drive. This would then lower the disqualification or potentially enable the Court to impose 10 penalty points. However based upon the information provided to date I believe that this would be a difficult argument to convince the prosecution of.
 
Thanks for the confirmation. My court date is on the 13th so I am just going to have to wait and to see what happens. This has been on my mind for the past two weeks since it's happened and I have been worrying alot about it.

It needs to get over with and I can move on. Thank you for the advice and I now know what to expect.
 
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