Failure to provide a specimen

[paulipops]

My wife was arrested this week following a road incident whereby another driver claimed my wife had clipped her car (which she is certain she hadn't), the 3rd party could smell alcohol on my wives breath, called the police, and without even being questioned or breathalysed at the scene was arrested and taken to the police station.
Thinking honesty was the best policy, when asked, she told the police that she had 2 glasses of wine about 2pm. She was arrested at about 5:30pm.
At the station she was asked to provide two breath samples. She tried both times, but they were unable to get a reading. Unfortunately my wife is 'not the brightest spanner in the toolbox', and knowing her, she probably just wasn't blowing correctly, but for certain this would not have been deliberate. Also, she was extremely upset, worried, anxious and shocked at the whole experience, so this may possibly have impaired her ability to use the machine correctly. She was asked to blow into the machine like blowing up a balloon, and that's what she felt she did. But it didn't work.
My wife is 49yo and never been arrested before.

So she has been charged with failure to provide a specimen for analysis.

Is there anything we could do that could provide evidence that she had 'reasonable excuse' why she was unable to provide the breath sample that was unknown to her at the time of taking the test? If so, what are the chances of success and the implications if our defence on that basis fails?

Many thanks
Paul

 

[SeanJoyceStephensons]

There can be a number of reasons why a machine cannot be satisfied. The most obvious would be:

1. The machine/mouthpiece was faulty; OR
2. The instructions given regarding how to blow into the machine were incorrect; OR
3. There was a medical reason why the specimen could not be provided.

In this case it would be prudent to investigate all three areas given that there appears no obvious reason on the face of it. Anxiety or panic attack like symptoms can potentially affect your physical ability to satisfy the requirements of the machine. Each case would have to be assessed on its own merits and it is important to speak with a solicitor in detail about the above issues before committing to a defence. Credit is applied to an early guilty plea but not to the part of the sentence that decides the length of any ban. This is something that you should obtain specific advice about. You can contact a specialist on 0333 323 1116.