Over the limit - Is there such a thing as mitigating circumstances?

Convicted Driver Insurance

Curiousgeorge

New Member
Hi, please can anyone offer any advice. I am 20 yrs old girl and on Sunday night I was on a city break in a B&B with my boyfriend. We had been celebrating my new job, with his parents who were in different accommodation a few miles away.

We returned to the B&B, which also double as a pub after a few drinks. When we got back I didn't think I was drunk but tipsy etc. We retired to our room only to be confronted a few moments later by the Landlady who was telling us we had to leave.

She claimed she had received a complaint from an outside person and was asking us to leave immediately.

Both my boyfriend and I tried to reason with her but she was adamant we had to leave. She even had our room money ready to hand back to us. As the discussion became more heated she was soon forcing us to retreat to the car park having stormed into our room. She was supported at this time by 5 or so other large men.

As we both felt extremely intimidated, we called the police for assistance (on 999) but they were slow in responding. During a period we called them a further two times but the pressure on us to leave was growing and growing whereby we felt threatened for our safety. The group was insistent that we also removed our car.

As the situation was so intense, we were fearing for our safety, I foolishly got into my car to leave to drive the few miles to my boyfriends parents.. By this time I never even considered the consequences of driving and was so scared for us both I didn't feel I had any alternative.

As we pulled out the car park, we were a short distance down the road where we saw a Police car behind. I pulled over to ask if they had come to our assistance and they asked me questions and then proceeded to breathalyze me, which obviously I failed.

I am absolutely distraught and I cant believe this has happened I am struggling to come to terms with the whole event and would like to know if anyone has experienced anything like this in the past and whether there is anything I can do or any one I can contact.

I would really really appreciate any advice any one can offer, I am so devastated about it all.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Mitigation is taken into account during the sentencing. Unfortunately if you fail the breath test you will get a minimum 12 month ban. The mitigation is used to decide on the level of the sentence within a prescribed range depending on the circumstances i.e. breath/blood/urine reading, your compliance and an early plea of guilty/not guilty.

Sorry it's not better news.

Sentencing guidelines can be found here http://www.drinkdriving.org/drink_driving_sentencing_guidelines.php#excess_alcohol
 
It is possible to be guilty of drink driving but put forward "Special Reasons" to not disqualify.
It would have to be to avoid the threat of imminent, serious injury and you would only have had to driven the minimum distance in order to get to safety. In your case I do not think that this applies. You were going to drive several miles to your parents hotel. You could have driven round the corner to escape the threat you say you were under, then called a taxi.
There is also a problem with the "threat". You were asked to leave private property and given a refund. (which certainly seems to indicate that ther had been some problem with your behaviour) you refused to leave and "the discussion became more heated." I am not sure what you felt the police were going to do when they arrived. They would have been faced with a property owner saying that 2 people had been asked to leave and were refusing to do so. You therefore had no right to remain on the property and that means that the owner can use reasonable force to put you out. They would have seen that you had been drinking and were alleged to have caused problems earlier...... They would have assisted the landlady in putting you out and arrested you if you played up!
I am not saying it was right for you to be threatened, but before then you were asked to leave and then told to leave so if the "heavy mob" arrived it was something of your own making and would not stand up as a "special Reason."
You don't say what your reading was, but Stoopid has pointed you towards the Magistrates guidelines and you can get a good indication of your likely ban if you compare your reading there.
 
Last edited:
Enter code DRINKDRIVING10 during checkout for 10% off
Top