Drink drive in car park

[remorsefulidiot]

Hi all,

My circumstances are as follows;

Parked car in a car park with every intention of sleeping overnight in the car.

Went out drinking and returned to the car park. As the car park had now emptied, I moved my car to the quiet corner and stopped. However I struck a small bollard in the car park and damaged the front of my car in the process.

I was stationary where I intended to bed down for the night but still had the engine running. At this point, a marked police car passed and noticed the damage. I co-operated fully and was breathalysed with a breath sample of 80 and locked up overnight.

I am not even a big drinker and have no previous motoring convictions - my marriage had previously broken down and I was going on a date. In addition losing my licence for any period of time (which I accept is going to happen) will have an impact on my career as I have a responsible job requiring that I drive on average half of the week.

Any comments or assistance will be greatly appreciated. I have left this a little late as I am due before the magistrate on Monday but due to the aforementioned marriage breakdown, I cannot afford representation.

 

[SeanJoyceStephensons]

If you are intending to plead guilty you need to be aware that the length of disqualifications that the Court will impose range from 12 months to 36 months. A period of 17 - 22 months is more common for your breath reading. However, with good effective mitigation it could be as low as 12 months.

You would need to put forward your mitigation which includes your personal circumstances and feelings in relation to the offence as well as your remorse.​

We are able to offer fixed fee representation at very short notice where someone wishes to plead guilty, which enables those due to appear in Court to get the lowest possible sentence and ban. If you wanted us to assist you you would need to ask for your case to be adjourned on Monday and instruct us immediately.​

It is worth knowing that a lot of the time drink driving cases can be defended using technical arguments even where no factual defences exist. If successful, you would be found not guilty and would not be banned.​