Case dropped - several police errors

Convicted Driver Insurance

Bravo

Member
After a very anxious few months, I went to court yesterday for my initial hearing. I was pleading not guilty on the grounds of procedural error (police only collected one urine sample from me). I was also quite surprised with the alcohol level based on what I had drank but it wasn't completely unbelievable. Before I entered the courtroom, my solicitor asked the prosecutor for the MGDDA and MGDDB forms. The prosecutor immediately accused my solicitor of 'fishing', even though it was obvious from my statement that I believed the procedure had not been carried out correctly and the sample therefore inadmissible.

So upon looking at the forms, it was blatantly obvious that the procedure had not been carried out correctly - even to someone who's not legally trained. This was not a loophole from the 19th century, there were just massive chunks of the MGDDA/MGDDB that were not filled in. The section that described behaviour/drunkenness etc was completely blank. (I was told this is ALWAYS completed). Indeed only one urine sample was taken and it appears I was not warned of prosecution for failure to provide. The reason for urine being taken was not mentioned, there were several other parts not completed and the forms were not even signed. The magistrates were rather unimpressed with the CPS prosecutor for this actually getting to court. The documents had to be emailed to the court, so I suspect nobody in the CPS actually looked at them or assumed they wouldn't be looked at.

So the prosecutor rang the police to see if they had any additional notes.. they didn't so he dropped the case straight away and the magistrate said I was free to go. (I was sitting in the public gallery at the time).

So that's what happened on the day. Ultimately I was VERY lucky. Lucky not to kill/injure someone back in September, lucky not to damage/destroy my car.. or someone elses, lucky the police made a mistake and didn't bother filling in half the MGDDB.

Whilst I've not been convicted, I accept what I did was wrong. (Whilst I didn't feel drunk, I knew I had been drinking before I drove my car). So I will be looking to do some kind of drink drive awareness course. I think you can voluntarily refer yourself to one?

Final message - Don't drink and drive. When I was arrested, my girlfriend left me (her friend was killed by a drink driver), I lost my job because I was too depressed to get out of bed, A lot of people heard of what happened - so my reputation suffered. And obviously it could've been SOOOO much worse. Don't do it, walk or get a taxi!
 
Hi Bravo, Im glad that your case got dropped but sorry for what you lost along the way. Please could you help me with a good solicitor, maybe the one you used as. Im going to need representing as I was arrested last week and a urine sample was taken as the breath machine at the station was not working
 
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