Advice please dr10

[icecream1]

I was stopped by the police after I had been to a party and asked if I had been drinking,to which i replied yes I had a beer and a shot of Sambuca,and told the policeman I had only just had the sambuca.I tested positive and was arrested and retested at the police station with a reading of 58.I asked the policeman what that meant and he said I was nearly three times over the limit! I said I didn't understand how I could be so over the limit after a beer (drank 3 hours previously) and a shot of Sambuca .(It was probably close to a double as was in a plastic shot glass and not a pub measure .
The next evening I returned to the party to collect some items I had lent the host,and told her what had happened .She explained that it wasn't sambuca we drank ,but a drink I had never heard of,called Black Abseinthe ,which was alot stronger.I asked her if she still had the bottle ,and she said she had thrown it away ,with all the other bottles from the party.I then went through all her recyling bags until i found it ,and to my horror realized,I had drank alcohol that was 160 % prof !!!! This would explain the high reading .I hadn't felt drunk when I got in the car as I had only just drunk this to toast her birthday and left (its under a 10 min journey to my house ) I have kept this bottle as evidence as well as one of the shot glasses (42ml) to show at court ,but im not sure how to go about a defense.Any advice would be greatly received, The sambuca and abseinthe are almost identical in colour,smell and taste.I had never even heard of this drink and was totally unaware you could even get alcohol so potent (its not available in the Uk) I would NEVER have drank it if id known !!

 

[SeanJoyceStephensons]

To clarify, the legal limit in England and Wales is 35 in breath so 58 is far from 3 times the legal limit.

I'm afraid however that you may struggle to raise any argument in respect of the fact you were unaware of what you were drinking. If the drink is something that you have poured yourself the Court will query why you have not looked at the bottle to see what you were drinking. If it is a drink that someone else has poured for you then they will query why you have not asked what drink it was they have poured.

Drink driving is a strict liability offence, this means that there is no requirement for the prosecution to prove that you intended to drive whilst over the limit, only that you did. For example someone could drive the morning after, believing that they are fit to drive but this would not amount to a defence.

If you are convicted of this offence then the Court will be looking to impose a 12-16 month disqualification and a Band C fine which would be calculated based upon your income. You are also likely to be offered the opportunity to attend the drink drive rehabilitation course which would reduce the length of the disqualification by up to 25% upon completion.