Drunk in charge of vehicle

Convicted Driver Insurance

gkg

New Member
I'd be grateful of some advice in the interim and will no doubt be needing the services of a specialist motor solicitor in due course.....! :

Having been out after work for (several) drinks I stupidly decided to ride home on my motorcycle. I had put the key in the ignition but had not started or mounted the bike (my helmet was probably on) when the police appeared from nowhere (possibly tipped-off). The police took me to the local station where I was breathalised but the machine was unable to take a reading (I did not refuse to give one). Therefore blood was taken. I was kept in the cells overnight and interviewed the following morning. I was asked what my intention was prior to arrest and admitted that it had been to drive home. I then expressed remorse whereupon the interview was terminated. I was then bailed until the 25th Nov (the incident took place several weeks ago), the delay presumably due to the wait for blood test.

I have a 3 points dating back to 2007, no criminal record and am a city professional. I was, however, most probably several times the legal limit as I had consumed fairly a considerable amount of alcohol.

I would be most grateful for anybody's imput in particular on:

- likely sentence / ban
- likely time from being charged and court appearance (days?weeks?months?)
- mitigation / defence...?

Your assistance is very much appreciated.

Regards
 
It is impossible to advise you in relation to your likely sentence as this will depend on your resulting blood test.

You need to be aware that, if your result comes back positive and you are charged with driving with excess alcohol, a ban is mandatory unless you can prove to the Court that special reasons exist that relate to the offence and not to you.




Should you require a Solicitor it is important to instruct one as early as possible. Drink Driving law is a highly specialised area of law. As such, you are best to seek the services of an expert motoring lawyer in order to maximise your prospects of success. This is particularly so if a ban would result in you losing your job or would impact on your livelihood. A conviction would also be a criminal one.


The police frequently make errors in the procedure, either at the road side or at the police station. We have dealt with situations like yours before with success and are able to offer advice on whether the procedure was followed correctly with a view to persuading the Court to rule your blood sample as inadmissible.


We offer 2 levels of service to people who are considering challenging the case against them:


(1) A written opinion on your prospects of success and the defences that can and should be run in your case. This is often used by people who would like to represent themselves or who would like the benefit of our expertise and intend to use a less experienced and cheaper solicitor.


(2) Full representation to trial. If you were successful you would be entitled to reimbursement of your legal fees paid subject to taxation.

If you wanted to proceed further then we would invite you to contact us in order to discuss matters further.


If you require our assistance please do not hesitate to telephone us.
 
Thanks Sean - you will probably hear from me at the end of the month when (and if!) I get charged.

Out of interest: I note in many instances in this forum where people have been blood-tested they have been offered a sample to take for independent testing. I'm pretty sure that more one vial of blood was taken, but I'm not sure I was offered a sample for myself at the time. When I was released the following morning I certainly wasn't offered one!

Have they followed the correct procedure here?
 
Re: Drunk in charge of vehicle - RESULT

An update: Reported on bail attendance date (a day late which was a bit embarrassing). Police were very nice and were even so good as to p*ss themselves laughing as they instructed me that my blood alcohol was 249 in 100 ("One for the boys down the pub").
Clearly I was pretty concerned in run up to court appearance and expected to be given it both barrels. Didn't instruct in the end due to time constraints and not wanting to drop a b*llock.
I spoke to duty solicitor who seem very switched on and entered the dock hoping for (at the very best) 18mths ban. The first comment magistrate made was "ban is not mandatory for this" which was promising! I ended up with 12 mths ban reduced to 9mths with DDA course. Very happy with result as I could have got a 2+year ban.
Moral of the story is play ball with police and criminal justice system and they won't look to hammer you I think.
 
Re: Drunk in charge of vehicle - RESULT

gkg said:
An update: Reported on bail attendance date (a day late which was a bit embarrassing). Police were very nice and were even so good as to p*ss themselves laughing as they instructed me that my blood alcohol was 249 in 100 ("One for the boys down the pub").
Clearly I was pretty concerned in run up to court appearance and expected to be given it both barrels. Didn't instruct in the end due to time constraints and not wanting to drop a b*llock.
I spoke to duty solicitor who seem very switched on and entered the dock hoping for (at the very best) 18mths ban. The first comment magistrate made was "ban is not mandatory for this" which was promising! I ended up with 12 mths ban reduced to 9mths with DDA course. Very happy with result as I could have got a 2+year ban.
Moral of the story is play ball with police and criminal justice system and they won't look to hammer you I think.
Click to expand...

a good result ban wise............did you ever find out if you were offered your own blood sample for independent analysis?
 
You were obviously charged with being drunk in charge rather than drink driving as you never actually drove your motorcycle. Drunk in charge is not a compulsory ban, only discretionary, the alternative being the imposition of 10 points
 
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