drink driving accident

Convicted Driver Insurance

worriedparent

New Member
hi im a very worried parent my son blew 74 and had a nasty accident. after heavy drinking my son woke at his friends house at 4am he made the terrible decision to drive 3 miles home he damaged the gate of his friends house (not pressing charges) drove to the end of our road and missed the turn crashing into a ground floor flat , his car went into the flat walls and the front of the car went through into the ladies house(the police dont think he was travelling at high speed as it was a hollow wall and he would have gone in further) unfortunately a lady was injured and taken to hospital to be checked but fortunately sustained only a black eye presumably from the flying debris(we dont believe she is pressing charges) he has been bailed on a standard drink driving charge and no mention of anything else. he is very remorseful and this was noted by the police who tould him there is no chance of a custodial sentence. however he is understandably anxious having nightmares etc and almost hysterical about the thought of going to prison,this in turn makes me as a parent anxious. he will lose his job and have to repay 10k of finance when banned . he has a previous conviction/fine for drunk and disorderly but no other driving convictions.please could you give us some clarity about the likely sentenceto help him get through to his court date
 
If your son has only been charged with drink driving with a reading of 74 in breath then he is not at risk of a custodial sentence. For a first offence with this reading the Magistrates sentencing guidelines advise the imposition of a 17-22 month disqualification and a Band C fine. He is also likely to be offered the opportunity to attend the drink drive rehabilitation course which will reduce the length of the disqualification by up to 25% upon completion.

The Court are likely to look at sentencing towards the higher end of the above bracket in light of the circumstances of the offence. Mitigation can however be presented to the Court to try and keep this sentence as low as possible.

If your son is interested in the possibility of obtaining legal representation then he welcome to call my department on 0333 999 7158.
 
Thankyou i will certainly ask him although money may be a problem! One final question the previous offence was actually assault a police officer (so ashamed) although it was just a shove,this happened in december, the whole family is in a mess and we have no paperwork from the incident, we believe it was a discharge with fine, however we are unsure if this was a conditional discharge(unlikely as we cant remember the mag highlighting it) would that be enough to push it toward custody,can the charge change between here and court?thanks so much for your time
 
Generally custody is only considered for drink driving cases where the breath reading is 120 or greater. This means that for your son to be at risk of custody the Court would have to move up two sentencing brackets, which will not happen in these circumstances.

The prosecution are able to lay an additional charge should they wish to do so, although this is not commonly done. Unfortunately it is impossible to say at this stage whether they will decide to do this, and if so what charge may be made. If for example they added a charge of careless driving this would have little bearing on the sentence imposed by the Court.
 
Thanks your advice is of huge benefit ,i wonder if i can ask for just one more piece of advise, i am worried about dangerous driving, this has not been mentioned at any point by the authorities but i cannot help wondering that given he has written his car off ,injured a lady (she was sleeping near the wall he hit i think the force of the collision actually shunted the bed and she got a black eye from a brick and sore knee) and obviously the damage to the wall (non structural),if in your experience if you have seen a case like this where dangerous driving has been added? If so when would we be told? Apologies ,its difficult not to let ones mind run away with itself!
Thanks
 
Unfortunately it is possible for the prosecution to lay an additional charge should they wish to do so, and this can happen as late as the Court date itself.

That being said it is quite rare for the prosecution to add additional offences at the Magistrates Court and offences are normally prosecuted from the outset. It is also far from certain that any additional charge would be dangerous driving and it is entirely possible that it would be something like careless driving which would only carry penalty points.

In my opinion and based upon the police's actions at this stage it is more likely that the prosecution and Court will treat the accident as an aggravating factor rather than an offence in its own right.
 
Hi sean just an update, and a thanks for your help, court went pretty much as you said it would, 18month ban etc, this has really affected me articularly as the victim went to local press to say they were unhappy with the outcome. Seeing as son has now been convicted trawled through press financial difficulty etc can there be any more come back , ie dd or careless, i know it sounds unlikely but my mental state is notgood and i cant help wondering! Yes he got off fairly lightly the cps didnt really mention the effect of the accident to put it up a band, i guess because of the perceived light physical injury sustained
Thanks
 
Enter code DRINKDRIVING10 during checkout for 10% off
Top