stoopid
Member
Ok, I was banned in late 2012 for 3 years, 2nd offence. My story is here http://www.forum.drinkdriving.org/have-you-been-caught-convicted-drink-driving/49177.htm
After 2 years of the ban I decided to apply for early removal of disqualification. 2 years was up late November 2014. I read A LOT about the process beforehand and thought I had all bases covered, I was wrong. I'm starting this thread to see if anyone else had this experience, which by all accounts seems very strange.
I had 2 hearings in total for my application. Let me explain why.
First hearing was supposed to be mid January of 2015. When I arrived at court my solicitor informed me that I had ended up with a district judge rather than a bench of magistrates. He said it wouldn't be a problem but that this particular judge was known to go into all details and what would usually have been a fairly quick hearing could potentially take hours, with me having to take to the stand. We were called into court and the prosecution opened the case. Within a few sentences she had declared me "non compliant". I had no idea what she meant, I had done all that I thought I had to do. After about 5 minutes of dialog between my counsel and the judge and prosecution it was made clear what had happened. Basically, the prosecution were claiming that part of the process for application of early removal in my county involves the arresting officer visiting the applicant in their own home to interview them, then report back to the prosecution with an opinion on whether or not they thought the applicant should be granted early removal. In my case, the officer in question had been knocking on the door of my old address asking for me (I had moved out shortly after my ban) and when he couldn't locate me, tried to contact my solicitor for my details. My solicitor, having never come across this process before, told the police to go away politely. He never told me this and had he anyway I would have taken his advice so I don't blame him at all. The officer at this point told the prosecution that I was not traceable and it was left at that. I was "non compliant". I'm on the electoral roll, my car is registered at my address and they know the registration, if they wanted to find me they could have... anyhow moving on. After this revelation, and on advice of the judge, court was adjourned until the interview had taken place.
Within 2 weeks the officer had visited me and relayed his opinion back to the prosecution. I managed to get another hearing in Feb and I had my ban reduced by just under 6 months, leaving me with 3 months left to go at that point.
So, has anyone come across this before? I'm not sure it's fair? It wasn't an issue in my case as the report was "neutral" apparently.
After 2 years of the ban I decided to apply for early removal of disqualification. 2 years was up late November 2014. I read A LOT about the process beforehand and thought I had all bases covered, I was wrong. I'm starting this thread to see if anyone else had this experience, which by all accounts seems very strange.
I had 2 hearings in total for my application. Let me explain why.
First hearing was supposed to be mid January of 2015. When I arrived at court my solicitor informed me that I had ended up with a district judge rather than a bench of magistrates. He said it wouldn't be a problem but that this particular judge was known to go into all details and what would usually have been a fairly quick hearing could potentially take hours, with me having to take to the stand. We were called into court and the prosecution opened the case. Within a few sentences she had declared me "non compliant". I had no idea what she meant, I had done all that I thought I had to do. After about 5 minutes of dialog between my counsel and the judge and prosecution it was made clear what had happened. Basically, the prosecution were claiming that part of the process for application of early removal in my county involves the arresting officer visiting the applicant in their own home to interview them, then report back to the prosecution with an opinion on whether or not they thought the applicant should be granted early removal. In my case, the officer in question had been knocking on the door of my old address asking for me (I had moved out shortly after my ban) and when he couldn't locate me, tried to contact my solicitor for my details. My solicitor, having never come across this process before, told the police to go away politely. He never told me this and had he anyway I would have taken his advice so I don't blame him at all. The officer at this point told the prosecution that I was not traceable and it was left at that. I was "non compliant". I'm on the electoral roll, my car is registered at my address and they know the registration, if they wanted to find me they could have... anyhow moving on. After this revelation, and on advice of the judge, court was adjourned until the interview had taken place.
Within 2 weeks the officer had visited me and relayed his opinion back to the prosecution. I managed to get another hearing in Feb and I had my ban reduced by just under 6 months, leaving me with 3 months left to go at that point.
So, has anyone come across this before? I'm not sure it's fair? It wasn't an issue in my case as the report was "neutral" apparently.
