Drink Driving 20.12.08

Convicted Driver Insurance

kimberley honey

Member
I went to a friends party and intended to stay over a heated argument started and I was asked to leave and unfortunately got in my car. I had a breath test of 94 at the roadside and was arrested. I am in court on 6th Jan I havent slept and hardly left the house since I am a legal executive luckily my boss says I can keep my job but its going to be very difficult as I have 2 children and live out of town. I have never been in trouble before and have been suicidal over it. I spoke to a local Solicitor and he says the ban will be 24 to 28 months and I wont be able to speak for myself at Court but I cant afford a solicitor and unfortunately the one at work is on a trial that day. Im scared on this site it says it may be 18 month ban apparently the court I am due in will allow you to take the course if you ask can any one offer advice for the hearing.

Thanks Kim
 
kimberley honey said:
I went to a friends party and intended to stay over a heated argument started and I was asked to leave and unfortunately got in my car. I had a breath test of 94 at the roadside and was arrested. I am in court on 6th Jan I havent slept and hardly left the house since I am a legal executive luckily my boss says I can keep my job but its going to be very difficult as I have 2 children and live out of town. I have never been in trouble before and have been suicidal over it. I spoke to a local Solicitor and he says the ban will be 24 to 28 months and I wont be able to speak for myself at Court but I cant afford a solicitor and unfortunately the one at work is on a trial that day. Im scared on this site it says it may be 18 month ban apparently the court I am due in will allow you to take the course if you ask can any one offer advice for the hearing.

Thanks Kim
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Hi Kim,

Welcome to the forums. While you may be going through a hard time at the moment and living on your nerves, you have got to try and look on the bright side. It could have been a whole lot worse, you didnt crash your car and injure yourself or anybody else while drinking and driving and your boss is allowing you to keep your job depsite your pending conviction, these are plus all plus points!

First of all you are entitled to speak for and represent yourself at court. The starting point for a first time offence of drinking and driving with a blood alcohol level of 94 is between 23 and 28 months. You will get a reduction of up to a third off any sentence imposed for an early guilty plea.

You should also expect a community order and the opportunity to complete the Drink Driving Rehabilitation Course.

You can see a duty solicitor on the day of your court case free of charge regardless of earnings who can give you advice on certain legal matters if you cannot afford to hire a solicitor to represent you. However their time may be limited and they will not have studied all the paperwork relevant to your case like a solicitor you hire would have done.

If you have any specific legal questions before your court case then you can get free legal advice via this forum in the Ask a Solicitor section.

Hope your court case goes well.
 
Hi

I got arrested a month ago for drink driving my reading was 103 and i crashed my car into three other parked cars, I have hated myself for driving but can be thank full i didnt kill any one, i went to court on december 2nd I got a 24 month ban and 120 hours comunity service i didnt get a fine becouse of my finacail problems, i did have to pay costs of £87 I also have to have a medical before i can get my licance back, I was offered the drink drive course witch will reduce my ban to 18 months, I know how you feel its not nice it was my first offence and a experiance i do not want to reapet
 
Thank you both for your posts it was helpful.
Is the third reduction for pleading guilty early in addition to any course?
The criminal solicitor says this particular court prefers high fines and not community service and offers every one the chance on the course.

I pleaded guilty at the police station the next morning.

Still having problems dealing with any one and dont go out of the house.
I can walk to work thats a plus I guess but cpd points for my employment are going to be almost impossible to do because they are in out of the way places you cant get to by public transport and you have to do 18 hours a year.

I was on high power pain killers at the time of the incident because I had a car accident about a month ago (not my fault) and hadnt been eating therefore the drink hit me harder. Gather none of this can be used as mitigating factors or the fact I was supposed to be staying over.

Its all a worry the credit on my car exceeds how much it is worth so I guess I am going to have to keep it and keep paying for it Im also in serious debt myself and having to have an iva in the new year but cant sort that out until I know what the fine is to make an allowance also our firm has already laid 4 people off and if things dont improve in the next couple of months all staff are on reduced hours.

Its just been an awful 2008 glad its gone

Thanks

Kim
 
kimberley honey said:
Thank you both for your posts it was helpful.
Is the third reduction for pleading guilty early in addition to any course?
The criminal solicitor says this particular court prefers high fines and not community service and offers every one the chance on the course.

I pleaded guilty at the police station the next morning.

Still having problems dealing with any one and dont go out of the house.
I can walk to work thats a plus I guess but cpd points for my employment are going to be almost impossible to do because they are in out of the way places you cant get to by public transport and you have to do 18 hours a year.

I was on high power pain killers at the time of the incident because I had a car accident about a month ago (not my fault) and hadnt been eating therefore the drink hit me harder. Gather none of this can be used as mitigating factors or the fact I was supposed to be staying over.

Its all a worry the credit on my car exceeds how much it is worth so I guess I am going to have to keep it and keep paying for it Im also in serious debt myself and having to have an iva in the new year but cant sort that out until I know what the fine is to make an allowance also our firm has already laid 4 people off and if things dont improve in the next couple of months all staff are on reduced hours.

Its just been an awful 2008 glad its gone

Thanks

Kim
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Hi

I pleaded quilty and in my defence qouted all the problems I have had over 2008 my wife left me and filed for divorce I'm in debt up to my eyes and suffer from deppresion, also i have Crohns and on constant medication, I know all this does not excuss drink driving but i stood up in court and told the magistarte all of this, I still got the two year ban but my comunity service was reduced to 120 hours from 150 becouse of the plea, as with your debt when you go to court you will be given a form to fill in with all your expendeture, take some notes with you of exactly how much money you have to pay out on bills food and debt, also mention your going on a IVA, I also am going to go bankrupt this year i put all this down on the form, I think you will get a minimum 18 month ban and comunity order, I work every saturday in a charity shop its not that bad and i have meet some lovly people at the shop and I'm doing something positive for a cancer charity, the court will also offer you the drink drive awareness course take it its about £200 dependent on were you live but it can reduce the ban up to 25% you have up to six months towrds the end of your ban to take it I have till April 2010 to do it so plenty of time to save for it,hope this helps any questions feel free to ask good luck and once you get all this out of the way you can start to rebuild your life, just keep thinking to yourself you didnt hurt or kill anyone or yourself, i think this when i feel a bit fed up i was lucky as the police man told me when i was in custady i only bent metal, we all in life make stupid mistakes
 
Hi there thanks for the reply. I guess wont feel better until court case over with. I am glad i didnt hurt any one or myself every day believe me. My eldest daughter was so upset its been hard trying to make her feel better she says she just sees me dead behind a wheel of a car. Back to work on Monday and Court on Tuesday. I clipped my car on a kerb and there is a little damage but at the time they couldnt prove whether it was like that already. Im pretty bruised and shaken still because when I told the Police what I did for a living they said they were going to teach me a lesson I explained that Im not a criminal lawyer Im a conveyancer but they didnt care it made it worse I was handcuffed behind my back and man handled I guess they just want to make it so you dont do it again they tried to add resisting arrest but I begged them not and they withdrew it. I didnt try and resist arrest lost a lot of respect for the Police over this I have to say.

The argument at the party was about my ex husband who ran off with my friends wife and things got out of hand when I texted to say I had been arrested and would lose my licence he didnt even ask how I was. We were friends for 25 years and he let me get in the car I will never forgive him because I could have killed someone it was 1 am so luckily there wasnt any one around.

The community service dosent sound too bad for you and I am glad you are getting something out of it - I wish you luck for 2009 its horrible when your spouse leaves you and you are alone to face the world and its problems. As you said before we all make mistakes. I have been alone for 3 christmases now.

Im just hoping the court may be lenient that day as four ladies were arrested for drink driving that nite and they were loud and angry where I just co-operated the best I could. Im going to keep my car because I love it so much Im going to put it in the garage because its not its fault I was stupid.

Take Care

Kim
 
Good luck for Tuesday, your treatment sounds very harsh by the police, i myself had no problems like that i cooperated fully with the police they didnt handcuff me and were stern but proffesinal at all times.

I was drinking with friends that night aswell and they let me drive I know we take full responsabity for our actions, but at least i would have thought they would of tried to stop me or even take my keys away they didnt, i dont blame them at all but i still feel it would have been nice if they tried to stop me I myself have stopped many friend drinking and driving in the past. any way plese let me know how you get on Tuesday

Mark
 
Kim, our situations are very similar; I am due in court on Tuesday and I blew 92 also.
Unfortunately I did damage my car so I think they will take that into account as an aggrevating factor :(

I hope Tuesday goes okay for you.
 
I feel for you I personally just want to get it over with now the suspense is causing a lack of sleep and deep unhappiness and depression. Im hoping I dont get community service because my youngest daughter is agrophobic and my not being there at the weekends is going to affect her badly and as Im on my own its down to me.

I did clip my car slightly but its a scuff on the bumper and a broken side light glass but they couldnt decide whether it was done before or not and I just said yes it was like that already so some senses came back but I didnt damage anyones car or more importantly hurt someone .

I have looked up some of the sites and contacted a solicitor at work who goes to the local court and knows what the magistrates will dish out as apparently it varies from court to court. Although he has said it depends on the day as to who has the highest reading of the day as to who lenient they are with you Im hoping everyone was high because mine like yours is in the medium to high bracket.

Good luck at Court

Kim
 
My car was quite badly damaged struck a telegraph pole, was moving it from the drive, only drove about 10 meters.. most expensive drive ever!

Just so glad that no one else was involved, remember that we have learnt our lesson the 'easy' way, we certainly wont be doing this ever again!

Anyway, I think I will get a more severe punishment than you cause of the aggrevating factors, I'm just trying not to worry about it too much.

Not really thought about what I'm going to say in court though, but I'm resigned to the fact that I am not going to have a car for at least 18 months, but I am lucky in that I don't really need one. I am not sure what your situation is.
Anyway, best of luck too! Try not to let it get to you
 
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hi,

i would just like to add my drink driving conviction experiences to this thread.

firstly i wish i found this site when i was convicted nearly 2 yrs ago, would have helped me sleep easier!

when i got caught i was at a party, i had drunk a lot and left to get a train home, i fell asleep and missed all trains, woke up and sat for a while and decided i felt okay and would drive the very short distance to my gfs at about 5am when the roads were quiet - what a terrible decision!

soon after after 2 minutes in the car i was aware i was being followed by police who trailed me for the rest of my journey into a dead end road. when i got out they told me i had been driving at excessive speed, breath tested me took me to the station. my reading was 110.

in hindsight it is amazing that they let me go at about 9am and i caught the bus and got into my car and drove to work, probably still well over the limit although i had seen a doctor by then.

at court the magistrate gave me a real lecture and told me she was very close to giving me a short custodial before giving me 2 years and 100 hours community service, didnt take the option of the drink driving course as i didnt have the money at the time - i didnt get any advice before going and was unaware how much talking i was required to do, it was all quite a scary experience and i accepted full guilt and expressed how disapointted and ashamed i was at my decision to drive

the community service was a joke, basically i spent most of it sat in a van occasionally painting over some graffiti or clearing out some alleys, i would rather have been working but it flew by okay despite spending my time with some real thugs

I am now approaching the end of my ban and have my medical coming up, i am trying my best to prepare for it but i dont really know what i should do, i am not going to drink from now untill the test which the date still isnt set but obviously had a few nights out over the festive period

one thing is for certain, i would never drink and drive again and feel that 2yrs ban and community service is still getting off light for actions that could have had huge implications for others
 
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hey wendalboy,

what kind of things did you have to say at your hearing, you mentioned you had to say a lot more than you expected.
 
i had to go through the events of the night then answer loads of questions about my work, how much and how regularly i drink, if i had done it before and got away with it, i had to give my opinion of the case notes (which were very harsh and slightly inaccurate but I didn't wanna argue small points!!)

I naively thought I would just turn up and go through the motions
 
Hi glad thats over in the end my former boss came with me and spoke for me because I was so nervous (kept throwing up last nite and having heart palpitations) because it was a first offence and because the police officer said I wasnt driving dangerously I had the ban reduced to 23 months with 23 weeks off if I take the course. The costs were reduced to from 675 to 450 because it was a first offence and the court costs were 60 and 15 for doing the offence (may be wrong wording) so 525 which they are going to let me pay at 50 per month they said that they reduced it from 28 months and let me do the course because it was my first offence therefore I think 17 months in total so hopefully get my licence back around May 2010. Cant get out of finance agreement so going to have to keep paying for car but I dont have to do community service which was what I was worried about. I guess the saving on petrol will pay the fine and just try to get on with my life now.

Kim
 
I got 24 months, reduced to 18 with course. and 500 fine, 60 costs and 15 fee.

No community service, which I am glad about

NEVER doing that ever again, !!
 
If like me after i went to court its a relief to know what you have to deal with , so we can all serve our bans and concentrate on living, I have missed my car in this cold snap but it could have been a lot worse for me or for others i may have affected.
 
Evans1882 said:
If like me after i went to court its a relief to know what you have to deal with , so we can all serve our bans and concentrate on living, I have missed my car in this cold snap but it could have been a lot worse for me or for others i may have affected.
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Yeah I do miss my car already but its parked outside cant get out of credit agreement. Walk to work takes 20 minutes it takes that in the car because of the traffic in the morning. Glad court case is over not happy that my boss asked me If I had a drink problem as apart from this party hadnt drank since september! I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and I got caught it was the one and only time I have driven after drinking and it could have been so much worse I could have killed someone one. My daughters are upset and I feel I have disappointed my family friends and colleagues for which I am very ashamed but the case is over and I want my life back Im not a bad person I did a silly thing and I am being punished as human beings we are not perfect im sure Im not the first or last.
 
Had letter from dvla saying have to have a medical before they give me my licence back and requesting return of licence when I handed it in to court. Can only insure car until august because thats when renewal up cant insure it after that because Im banned without transferring the car when will all this crap end :mad:
 
The crap stops now I got a letter from DVLA saying about a medical and as far as I'm concernd thats it until i re apply for my licance, as to car insurance I asume your keeping it on a public high way thats why you need insurance but as you say you wont be able to insure it while banned I think your only option is to try and get it off the road and declare it SORN with DVLA then you wont have to get insurance.

good luck sorting things out I think the DVLA have a rub salt into the wounds policy when it comes to drink driving I thougth the same as you when i got the letter.
 
Evans1882 said:
The crap stops now I got a letter from DVLA saying about a medical and as far as I'm concernd thats it until i re apply for my licance, as to car insurance I asume your keeping it on a public high way thats why you need insurance but as you say you wont be able to insure it while banned I think your only option is to try and get it off the road and declare it SORN with DVLA then you wont have to get insurance.

good luck sorting things out I think the DVLA have a rub salt into the wounds policy when it comes to drink driving I thougth the same as you when i got the letter.
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I put the car in the garage and locked it away. I had a car accident on 02.12.08 and have a back injury my Solicitor wants to claim on the accident expenses thats why I left it going to SORN it then as taxed to end of month. I contacted DVLA and have to have the medical because I was over 87 and to get the same its 96 and 95 for your licence back and the course is 150 beginning to think its being done not just to be difficult but to make sure you cant afford to get back on the road.
 
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