Blew 43/41 :-(

[Charlottexxx2016]

Hi, just wondered if anyone had any advice, I got pulled the next day after being out at a festival, I woke up and drove home early as I needed to get home to my daughter, I had broke my phone screen so I was worried she was wondering where I was.
I felt fine and I got in the car after having five hours sleep. Was about 9.00am, I then got pulled by police at the roadside and blew 43 :-( got back to the police station and blew 41. They charged me and gave me a court date.
I'm a locum dental nurse and I travel every day to different practices throughout Yorkshire and Lancashire, my life is traveling around. I'm also studying dental therapy and feel this will effect my job.
I just wondered what the best option would be and what would be the outcome with being so low. Some online solicitors have told me they charge about five thousand pounds to represent you, others £130 who clearly state I won't get off with anything other than a ban.
If I pled not guilty and made a case would it go against me in anyway if I explained and the court saw my situation and how it was the morning after and I felt fine and blew low, or am I best off pleading guilty and will it definintly be a ban :-(

 

[Forum Moderator]

Hi, just wondered if anyone had any advice, I got pulled the next day after being out at a festival, I woke up and drove home early as I needed to get home to my daughter, I had broke my phone screen so I was worried she was wondering where I was.
I felt fine and I got in the car after having five hours sleep. Was about 9.00am, I then got pulled by police at the roadside and blew 43 :-( got back to the police station and blew 41. They charged me and gave me a court date.
I'm a locum dental nurse and I travel every day to different practices throughout Yorkshire and Lancashire, my life is traveling around. I'm also studying dental therapy and feel this will effect my job.
I just wondered what the best option would be and what would be the outcome with being so low. Some online solicitors have told me they charge about five thousand pounds to represent you, others £130 who clearly state I won't get off with anything other than a ban.
If I pled not guilty and made a case would it go against me in anyway if I explained and the court saw my situation and how it was the morning after and I felt fine and blew low, or am I best off pleading guilty and will it definintly be a ban :-(

Upon conviction of driving with excess alcohol a minimum 12 month disqualification is mandatory. Drink driving is a strict liability offence; this means you do not have to have intention to commit the offence or knowledge that you are committing the offence to be charged with and found guilty of the offence.

Upon conviction of driving with excess alcohol and a breath reading of 41 sentencing guidelines suggest a band C fine and a 12-16 month driving disqualification. It is likely your disqualification will be at the lower end of the scale (12 months) as you were not that far over the legal limit. The majority of first time offenders are usually given the opportunity to take the drink driving rehabilitation course, upon completing the course the length of disqualification imposed will be reduced by up to 25%.

From the information you have provided I cannot see how you can successfully plead 'not guilty' to the offence. Evidence shows you were driving a motor vehicle on a road or a public place while over the prescribed legal limit, this is all the evidence needed to be convicted.

Do you have any evidence to prove otherwise? If not, then I can only suggest you plead guilty as pleading not guilty will be futile and will lead to higher court costs when found guilty.

You can tell the court how a disqualification will impact your job and cause hardship either verbally or by composing a letter. However, potential hardship due to being disqualified, no matter how severe, will not prevent a disqualification from being imposed. There are people who have lost careers, relationships and even their homes due to being disqualified for drink driving.

Our guide to appearing at magistrates court for drink driving offences may prove useful to you.

Once you have been to court, let us know the outcome as it may help others who find themselves in a similar predicament in the future.

 

[Charlottexxx2016]

Hi, thankyou for your reply, I understand the guilty part but that's why wanted to ask what was best to do, as I would never of gone out and drove home drunk, I went to sleep then got up and felt fine, so can I not plead not guilty and say I stopped drinking went to sleep and got up feeling fine, drove Home and didn't feel over the limit at all, proven by my low limit? X

Upon conviction of driving with excess alcohol a minimum 12 month disqualification is mandatory. Drink driving is a strict liability offence; this means you do not have to have intention to commit the offence or knowledge that you are committing the offence to be charged with and found guilty of the offence.

Upon conviction of driving with excess alcohol and a breath reading of 41 sentencing guidelines suggest a band C fine and a 12-16 month driving disqualification. It is likely your disqualification will be at the lower end of the scale (12 months) as you were not that far over the legal limit. The majority of first time offenders are usually given the opportunity to take the drink driving rehabilitation course, upon completing the course the length of disqualification imposed will be reduced by up to 25%.

From the information you have provided I cannot see how you can successfully plead 'not guilty' to the offence. Evidence shows you were driving a motor vehicle on a road or a public place while over the prescribed legal limit, this is all the evidence needed to be convicted.

Do you have any evidence to prove otherwise? If not, then I can only suggest you plead guilty as pleading not guilty will be futile and will lead to higher court costs when found guilty.

You can tell the court how a disqualification will impact your job and cause hardship either verbally or by composing a letter. However, potential hardship due to being disqualified, no matter how severe, will not prevent a disqualification from being imposed. There are people who have lost careers, relationships and even their homes due to being disqualified for drink driving.

Our guide to appearing at magistrates court for drink driving offences may prove useful to you.

Once you have been to court, let us know the outcome as it may help others who find themselves in a similar predicament in the future.

 

[Forum Moderator]

Hi, thankyou for your reply, I understand the guilty part but that's why wanted to ask what was best to do, as I would never of gone out and drove home drunk, I went to sleep then got up and felt fine, so can I not plead not guilty and say I stopped drinking went to sleep and got up feeling fine, drove Home and didn't feel over the limit at all, proven by my low limit? X

You will have been charged under Section 5(1)(a) of the Road Traffic Act 1988, this section states:

5 Driving or being in charge of a motor vehicle with alcohol concentration above prescribed limit:

(1) If a person—

(a) drives or attempts to drive a motor vehicle on a road or other public place, or
(b) is in charge of a motor vehicle on a road or other public place,

after consuming so much alcohol that the proportion of it in his breath, blood or urine exceeds the prescribed limit he is guilty of an offence.

Regardless of whether or not you felt fine, didn't feel over the limit and the alcohol level in your system was low, the fact still remains that the level of alcohol in your system exceeded the prescribed legal limit. This means that you are guilty of the offence you are charged with and there is little point in pleading not guilty.

Unless you successfully challenge the accuracy of the evidential breath testing machine and prove that the reading it gave was somehow unreliable and are subsequently found not guilty then a driving disqualification is inevitable.

The home office already allows a suspected drink driver a certain amount of leeway in that the prescribed legal limit is 35 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, however a driver will not be prosecuted under section 5 with a breath alcohol level of less than 40 micrograms.

Unfortunately you had a breath alcohol level of 41 and were subsequently charged with drink driving.

You can inform the court of the impact it will have on your job and of the circumstances surrounding the offence etc. However under the circumstances you describe, in order to avoid disqualification you would have to be found not guilty of the offence and as explained above, unless the breath testing machine produced unreliable results and this can be proven, the chances of you being found not guilty are zero.

Upon conviction, the best you can hope for is a 12 month driving disqualification reduced to 9 months by completing the drink driving rehabilitation course and a band C fine.

 

[Charlottexxx2016]

What I didn't mention is I really didn't have much to drink at all, the drinks were so expensive and I'm not a big drinker, I ended up camping over and in the night I took a drink off the people in the tent who we didn't know and all I can think is that what if their Fanta had alcohol in it, Iv gone to bed feeling ok then woke up to some idiot guy offering us drugs at the festival which we are against, so I got up and my friend got up and she left then so did I and we set back off home, knowing I hadn't had a drink in hours and had been asleep, but then what if I drank a drink with something in it.
If I told the court all this I'm scared they would judge me for and think I'm lying. Would it make my sentence worse in the end if it went to trial, Than if I just pleaded guilty. I just am so shocked it was 41 as I said I stopped drinking early and I barley drank, :-(

You will have been charged under Section 5(1)(a) of the Road Traffic Act 1988, this section states:



Regardless of whether or not you felt fine, didn't feel over the limit and the alcohol level in your system was low, the fact still remains that the level of alcohol in your system exceeded the prescribed legal limit. This means that you are guilty of the offence you are charged with and there is little point in pleading not guilty.

Unless you successfully challenge the accuracy of the evidential breath testing machine and prove that the reading it gave was somehow unreliable and are subsequently found not guilty then a driving disqualification is inevitable.

The home office already allows a suspected drink driver a certain amount of leeway in that the prescribed legal limit is 35 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, however a driver will not be prosecuted under section 5 with a breath alcohol level of less than 40 micrograms.

Unfortunately you had a breath alcohol level of 41 and were subsequently charged with drink driving.

You can inform the court of the impact it will have on your job and of the circumstances surrounding the offence etc. However under the circumstances you describe, in order to avoid disqualification you would have to be found not guilty of the offence and as explained above, unless the breath testing machine produced unreliable results and this can be proven, the chances of you being found not guilty are zero.

Upon conviction, the best you can hope for is a 12 month driving disqualification reduced to 9 months by completing the drink driving rehabilitation course and a band C fine.

 

[SeanJoyceStephensons]

The forum moderator has kindly brought this matter to my attention due to the technical legal nature of the questions being posed.

First and foremost, whilst an issue of spiked drinks can give the Court grounds not to impose a disqualification, it would not be possible to plead not guilty on this basis. As set out above, drink driving is a strict liability offence and as such even if you did not realise you were over the limit (e.g. your drinks were spiked without your knowledge) then this does not give grounds on which to plead not guilty.

The plea that may be relevant to this is referred to as a special reasons plea. In short, if you can demonstrate to the Court that you were unaware that you had consumed the additional alcohol, and that had it not been for this alcohol you would not have been over the limit then special reasons can be found. The actual argument is not as simple as this but those two are the most important factors. It is important to note that this would still be a guilty plea, but if successful can avoid the imposition of a disqualification.

One issue that is likely to be a significant problem is the proof that the drink you had consumed did in fact contain alcohol. As this was not something that you had realised at the time and presumably you have no way of contacting the people who offered you a drink, it will be very difficult to prove that there was in fact alcohol present in the drink. Similarly the prosecution may query why it was that you did not taste any alcohol when you were drinking the Fanta. If this is an avenue that you wish to pursue then I would strongly advise that you speak to the people who you were with at the festival and see if anyone knows the people who gave the drink to you. If you are able to corroborate your account with a witness this would place you in a far stronger position.

 

[Charlottexxx2016]

First and foremost, whilst an issue of spiked drinks can give the Court grounds not to impose a disqualification, it would not be possible to plead not guilty on this basis. As set out above, drink driving is a strict liability offence and as such even if you did not realise you were over the limit (e.g. your drinks were spiked without your knowledge) then this does not give grounds on which to plead not guilty.

The plea that may be relevant to this is referred to as a special reasons plea. In short, if you can demonstrate to the Court that you were unaware that you had consumed the additional alcohol, and that had it not been for this alcohol you would not have been over the limit then special reasons can be found. The actual argument is not as simple as this but those two are the most important factors. It is important to note that this would still be a guilty plea, but if successful can avoid the imposition of a disqualification.

One issue that is likely to be a significant problem is the proof that the drink you had consumed did in fact contain alcohol. As this was not something that you had realised at the time and presumably you have no way of contacting the people who offered you a drink, it will be very difficult to prove that there was in fact alcohol present in the drink. Similarly the prosecution may query why it was that you did not taste any alcohol when you were drinking the Fanta. If this is an avenue that you wish to pursue then I would strongly advise that you speak to the people who you were with at the festival and see if anyone knows the people who gave the drink to you. If you are able to corroborate your account with a witness this would place you in a far stronger position.

Hi, many thanks for the reply. Yes I understand be hard to prove that is why I felt I didn't want to say as I felt they would just say to me how can you prove it.

I have proof off a girl I was with I drank the drink and she knew it had alcohol in it. But the other people at the festival were all random people so we never saw them or got in touch with them again, plus none of had working phones with batteries dying etc. :-(
all Iv got is the fact I didn't know I drank a drink with vodka in it, I did think it tasted funny but not like vodka and I was dehydrating as was in the tent so I didn't even think.

Iv been advised to plead not guilty and let it go to trial? But I accept the fact I drank it so I don't see how can plead not guilty. These solicitors are asking fees of up to seven thousand pound so I feel they just giving false hope?