Drink driving trial

Convicted Driver Insurance

Jack1340

New Member
Basically I'm gonna summarise everything
I got breatherlised at 11:10pm roadside
I blew 38.
Got arrested and at 12:30am I blew 43.

My reading went up in 1 hour and 20 minutes.
From the moment I got pulled over I put 3 pieces of chewing gum in my mouth so the police wouldn't suspect my breath but because I overtook a car the police said they have to breatherlise me anyway.
I was coughing ALOT just before I did the breath tests (roadside and in the station) as I got a coughing problem. Even while I was in the station I still had that chewing gum in my mouth and did the breath test again with that same chewing gum in my mouth - the officer asked me every question in the book (did you eat anything.. did you drink anything.. did you inhale anything... did you inject anything..) just normal questions but they never asked me if I'm chewing anything and I was chewing it dramatically.

Also on roadside I just had a cigarette and the officer waited 3 minutes to be exact after I stopped smoking before he breatherlised me.

Any advice will be appreciated as I pleaded not guilty and have a trial next month. I don't believe they followed the correct procedure.
 
Also before I started driving I used mouthwash (them small listerine bottles) because I was going home didn't want my family to smell anything on my breath.
From my research I did mouthwash AND chewing gum can effect the reading on the breath test is this true?
 
There are potential defences that can be explored both in respect of procedure involved in taking the specimen and the reliability of that specimen.

The reliability of the reading produced from the machine can sometimes be called into question. If you are concerned or surprised that you were over the limit then the starting point would have to be to consider whether the amount of alcohol you have consumed would be sufficient, given your individual characteristics such as your height and weight, to give rise to the reading produced. An expert would need to be instructed to calculate this. If the result of that calculation suggests you should have been under the limit then that would be enough to consider the machine and reading produced in more detail. Mouth alcohol can be an issue so things like coughing up from your stomach, chewing gum and recently using mouthwash MAY be an issue that can give an impact on the result produced by the machine to give an unrealistic idea of the alcohol content in your system because of the presence of concentrated mouth alcohol from your stomach or residual alcohol in the mouthwash, for example. The mouthwash in your case is unlikely to be an issue unless it was used within a short time before your specimen at the station (say, 20 minutes) and the short time between use and blowing into a roadside device is largely irrelevant as the roadside device is not considered as an evidential result. From experience, the chewing gum is unlikely to have any impact but that is something an expert should consider more closely.

Police station procedure can also be important when considering what evidence is admissible and what is not.

Given the complexity of this area of law you need to discuss and ideally instruct a specialist solicitor to deal with your case before you get to trial. You can contact a specialist on 0333 009 5401.
 
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