GBFast
New Member
I live in Northern Ireland but the legal limit is the same as in England and Wales and the road traffic laws are virtually the same.
I had a massive bereavement in late March and starting drinking heavily in April. However, I had not been drinking in over a week when, on 3 May, I learnt that a large debt had not been repaid to me. That morning, I went and bought wine and drank a bottle of it before 12.00 noon.
After 6.00pm, because I believed that I would now be below the limit, I drove to get a bottle of brandy from the local shop (I was tired and achy from insomnia) and had no brandy in the house, and wanted some because it helped me to sleep, and then drank more wine and a a little bit of the brandy when I got home.
At 7.55pm, the police came to the door and said they had had a report from a neighbour that I had "stumbled" from my car (this is not unusual - I am clumsy), and he officer could also smell alcohol from my breath.
He said he wanted me to do a breath test. I told him I would fail it as I had been drinking. Nonetheless, he said he wanted me to do it and I did. The breath test was 84, which was no surprise. He arrested me.
Two hours later, at the police station, the official test was 77. I have got in my mind that the prosecution will persuade a judge that it should have continued to rise and the judge will not believe what happened.
I was interviewed the next day and the officer doing the interview said I would be given a CD copy of the interview. I never was. I was then released.
I heard nothing more until I received papers at the end of September saying I was to be prosecuted, so I hired a solicitor.
The papers include all of the witness statements they intend to use, one of which includes the police officer stating that I was given a copy of the interview, which I was not, so I have had to recollect this. It also has the neighbour's statement, which adds that I had stumbled on the steps to my back door, but they are invisible from anywhere in that neighbour's vicinity.
One of the officer's statements also says that he took-away two items for evidence: an empty wine bottle, and the bottle of brandy with what he says was a "small amount" taken from it. But I had two bottles of wine - one earlier, one later with the small amount of brandy and a very small bit of something else.
My solicitor wants me to complete a toxicology form for analysis, which I have done. He says this is called a "hip-flask" defence, but it never occurred to me that I was drinking later to hide earlier - I was drinking to block-out emotional trauma and financial shock.
Apart from being stressed-out about the whole thing, I am also worried at how the breath tests look: even to the police, they must seem too high for a bottle of wine consumed between 11.30am and before 12.00 noon, yet they seem a bit low for this plus the after-driving bottle of wine and the small amount of brandy.
How much in a breath test would equate to one unit, or does it depend on the person's height/weight/tolerance/food consumed, etc?
What is also bound to look bad is that, immediately after this, I felt so insecure and worried about falling under any more suspicion that I handed both sets of my car-keys over to my best friend, and my drinking deteriorated over the summer to the extent that I had a chat with my doctor and agreed to surrender my driving licence.
I'm not driving anyway, but what do you think my chances are of avoiding a conviction?
I had a massive bereavement in late March and starting drinking heavily in April. However, I had not been drinking in over a week when, on 3 May, I learnt that a large debt had not been repaid to me. That morning, I went and bought wine and drank a bottle of it before 12.00 noon.
After 6.00pm, because I believed that I would now be below the limit, I drove to get a bottle of brandy from the local shop (I was tired and achy from insomnia) and had no brandy in the house, and wanted some because it helped me to sleep, and then drank more wine and a a little bit of the brandy when I got home.
At 7.55pm, the police came to the door and said they had had a report from a neighbour that I had "stumbled" from my car (this is not unusual - I am clumsy), and he officer could also smell alcohol from my breath.
He said he wanted me to do a breath test. I told him I would fail it as I had been drinking. Nonetheless, he said he wanted me to do it and I did. The breath test was 84, which was no surprise. He arrested me.
Two hours later, at the police station, the official test was 77. I have got in my mind that the prosecution will persuade a judge that it should have continued to rise and the judge will not believe what happened.
I was interviewed the next day and the officer doing the interview said I would be given a CD copy of the interview. I never was. I was then released.
I heard nothing more until I received papers at the end of September saying I was to be prosecuted, so I hired a solicitor.
The papers include all of the witness statements they intend to use, one of which includes the police officer stating that I was given a copy of the interview, which I was not, so I have had to recollect this. It also has the neighbour's statement, which adds that I had stumbled on the steps to my back door, but they are invisible from anywhere in that neighbour's vicinity.
One of the officer's statements also says that he took-away two items for evidence: an empty wine bottle, and the bottle of brandy with what he says was a "small amount" taken from it. But I had two bottles of wine - one earlier, one later with the small amount of brandy and a very small bit of something else.
My solicitor wants me to complete a toxicology form for analysis, which I have done. He says this is called a "hip-flask" defence, but it never occurred to me that I was drinking later to hide earlier - I was drinking to block-out emotional trauma and financial shock.
Apart from being stressed-out about the whole thing, I am also worried at how the breath tests look: even to the police, they must seem too high for a bottle of wine consumed between 11.30am and before 12.00 noon, yet they seem a bit low for this plus the after-driving bottle of wine and the small amount of brandy.
How much in a breath test would equate to one unit, or does it depend on the person's height/weight/tolerance/food consumed, etc?
What is also bound to look bad is that, immediately after this, I felt so insecure and worried about falling under any more suspicion that I handed both sets of my car-keys over to my best friend, and my drinking deteriorated over the summer to the extent that I had a chat with my doctor and agreed to surrender my driving licence.
I'm not driving anyway, but what do you think my chances are of avoiding a conviction?
