worried
New Member
On the 12th of December 2009 at 1030pm I was pulled over due to a light being defective on my vehicle whilst driving home. I had had 4 1/2 pints of 5% lager and had had the first of those from 530pm. I was breath tested on the road side and registered 58. I was taken to the local police station where i failed to provide 2 usable breath tests (the one that did register was 61) I agreed to take a blood test and waited in the cells for another hour. I provided a bloodtest and was given two further breath tests on a mobile breath testing device to establish whether or not i could leave the station and drive home the first registered 45 and the second 35. I was then taken from the police station to my vehicle and drove home at 0330am. The result of the blood test which I was told would take up to 6 weeks never did turn up and I decided not to have the blood sample in my possession tested (whatever the result was would not change and knowing in advance would only cost me extra to find out).
I returned to the police station 8 weeks later such were the conditions of my bail and was presented with the results of the blood test (114 in 100 of blood the equivalent of 51 in a breath test i believe) and charged to appear at court 10 days later on the date of my 38th birthday as it happens).
I spoke to a local solicitor and agreed for him to represent me for a cost of £200+Vat. He asked me for the basic details of my case and for 4/5 character references which I provided. By this stage I had done some research on the internet and found this forum to be incredibly useful I had already come to terms with the likely outcome (a ban and a fine) and had told all those that are close to me in my personal and professional life of the incident (this I had worried about more that anything else as I was embaressed - prior to this incident I have had no dealings with the police and had a clean driving license for 21 years).
On my day in court I met my solicitor in person for the first time and had a brief chat re the procedure of the court appearance. I was required to stand in the dock and spoke only to confirm my plea of guilty and to confirm some factual details.
I was banned from driving for 12 months and given the option to decrease this by three months by attending the awareness course which I agreed to. I was fined £400 (equal to 1 weeks income after tax) and ordered to pay £85 prosecution fees and £15 extra which i beleive goes to victims of accidents, a grand total of £500. When added to the solicitors fees financially a cost to me of approx £750.
I was worried that this might be reported in the local paper, but it seems the story was not news worthy on the day.
The whole experience has been quite stressful and embaressing and the true cost will not be known until I have served by 9 month ban (I estimate approx £7,500 when inc loss of earnings).
For those of you that are starting the journey and have just got caught my advise to you is this. Accept the position you find yourself in (although you'd like to you cannot turn back the clock) and seek to control that which you can control, try not to worry un-necessarily about those thing which you cannot. Although you may find yourself in unfamiliar territory those that you deal with in relation to this matter eg Solicitors, Magistrates, Police etc deal with this stuff all the time, it is very much "part of their normal day". In my case I also found that friends family and work colleagues were all very understanding and supportive.
I hope some part of this info may be useful to you if you have just been caught good luck with it all.
And if you are reading this and have not been caught for god sake don't drive if you have consumed alcohol, trust me when I say it's not worth it.
I returned to the police station 8 weeks later such were the conditions of my bail and was presented with the results of the blood test (114 in 100 of blood the equivalent of 51 in a breath test i believe) and charged to appear at court 10 days later on the date of my 38th birthday as it happens).
I spoke to a local solicitor and agreed for him to represent me for a cost of £200+Vat. He asked me for the basic details of my case and for 4/5 character references which I provided. By this stage I had done some research on the internet and found this forum to be incredibly useful I had already come to terms with the likely outcome (a ban and a fine) and had told all those that are close to me in my personal and professional life of the incident (this I had worried about more that anything else as I was embaressed - prior to this incident I have had no dealings with the police and had a clean driving license for 21 years).
On my day in court I met my solicitor in person for the first time and had a brief chat re the procedure of the court appearance. I was required to stand in the dock and spoke only to confirm my plea of guilty and to confirm some factual details.
I was banned from driving for 12 months and given the option to decrease this by three months by attending the awareness course which I agreed to. I was fined £400 (equal to 1 weeks income after tax) and ordered to pay £85 prosecution fees and £15 extra which i beleive goes to victims of accidents, a grand total of £500. When added to the solicitors fees financially a cost to me of approx £750.
I was worried that this might be reported in the local paper, but it seems the story was not news worthy on the day.
The whole experience has been quite stressful and embaressing and the true cost will not be known until I have served by 9 month ban (I estimate approx £7,500 when inc loss of earnings).
For those of you that are starting the journey and have just got caught my advise to you is this. Accept the position you find yourself in (although you'd like to you cannot turn back the clock) and seek to control that which you can control, try not to worry un-necessarily about those thing which you cannot. Although you may find yourself in unfamiliar territory those that you deal with in relation to this matter eg Solicitors, Magistrates, Police etc deal with this stuff all the time, it is very much "part of their normal day". In my case I also found that friends family and work colleagues were all very understanding and supportive.
I hope some part of this info may be useful to you if you have just been caught good luck with it all.
And if you are reading this and have not been caught for god sake don't drive if you have consumed alcohol, trust me when I say it's not worth it.
