in court tomorrow - the truth

Convicted Driver Insurance

mjm79

New Member
Hello all,
firstly i would like to say thanks to the forum and people, it has been great support since being done for drink driving.
I am in court tomorrow at 10am, i blew just over 90 and think i will get a long ban :(
I have written a letter to the court and also my mother has, not trying to get away with anything at all but please read below!

Your Honour,
I would like to offer my sincerest of apoligies to yourself,Cambridgeshire Constabulary and other road users who I put at riskduring the early hours of Saturday 22[SUP]nd[/SUP] of September 2018.


I apoligise sincerley for wasting the courts and the polices timedealing with what I have done.
Since the incident I have struggled to come to terms with theterrible decisions I made that night.


All I can say is that as a normally careful and conscientious driverI promise it will never, ever happen again, and I am completelymortified that it has even happened this once.


I have put shame on my family and risked my livelihood, but moreshamefull is that I put other road users at risk.


I would be gratefull if I could be considered for any courses ofrehabilitiation, I would also accept community service as punishmentif this is fitting in this case, I would feel like I am givingsomething back for my stupid actions.


Once again I am very ashamed of my actions and will accept mypunishment the court sees fit,
Regards




and my mums,

Dears Sirs,
I would like tointroduce myself, I am marks mother Margaret , I wished I could be there today with my son.


I do not condone atall my sons actions being caught for drink driving and rest assured Iam very discusted with my son for this, I have also told him manytimes how dissapointed I am!


My son did not wantme to write a letter to the court explaining a few things why my sonacted out of character in drink driving but I felt I needed to dothis.
Mark lost his dadlate last year, mark was his soul carer as he had parkinsons andsevere mental health issues, he died in fulbourn mental hospital andmark never got chance to say goodbye and he regrets that very much!
After his death markhad no help in arranging his dads funeral/cremation on very littlemoney, no help from his fathers family, he even had to do the servicehisself and him and a few people he knew collected his dad from thehospital and even carried him into the chapel.
A day after thecremation I lost my mother who was very close also to mark, I had tobreak the news to mark that again he would have to deal with the samechapel and now this time it was his grandma, again mark was there forme like he always is.
And just last monthmark lost his uncle, (my brother) he was like a second dad to markand again in the same chapel supporting me as always.
Mark also helps carefor me, he works full time for his local council and has been incouncil work between two councils for over 15 years, I have veryserious health problems and there are far too many to list by I amdisabled, I have copd, I am on 24hr oxygen and have a hospital bed inthe front room.
Mark is always therefor me and helps where he can in between long hours at work, for himwhen he is obviously and rightly banned from driving for a period hewill suffer so much, he is guilt ridden that he cannot get to me aseasy as he used to, he is guilt ridden he can no longer take me todoctors and hospital appoitments, but I have told him that this isall his fault and whilst I love him he has to take the punnishmentand learn from it.
Mark has type 2diabetes and has lost around 2 stone trying to reverse this, and thisis why he probally blew so high as I have warned him about drinkingnow he has lost so much weight and stopped taking insulin, again noexcuse what so ever!
I thank you and thecourts time for reading this letter, mark knows he will be punishedfor this and rightly so but I felt the court needed to know about hispast few months and how this could of affected this stupid decisionhe made,
regards,

any advice for court would be great and i will post what punishment i recieve,
 
Your letter is fine although I would take out the bit about community service.

In my opinion your mothers comes across as making excuses. She should focus soley on your character, how a ban would affect your ability to care for her and make it shorter.

Telling the court that you have experienced losses will make them wonder why you would endanger the lives others by drink driving.

I also wouldnt mention the diabetes (although in that sentence it says no excuses), it does come across like an excuse.

Hopefully others will reply before tomorrow.
 
Hewl is right with that advice, especially the Diabetes bit, otherwise what happens when they ask if you had notified DVLA that you were type 1 diabetic as you should have?
Remember that what is SAID in court can be reported in the press, so if the court ask you to read out the letters (some courts do not like written submissions) then all of what you say could be in the local newspaper tomorrow........
 
Mark I hope you got as good a result as possible.

I appreciate a bit late for you but for others reading this thread, I would really advise not taking a letter from your mum because it's pretty much the most partial person you can get.

I know it can be difficult but for a personal reference it is best to get a letter from a registered professional - doctor, nurse, teacher, director, etc. or someone with standing in community like a minister.

You can then get any additional ones from work, if you volunteer, etc. probably three max.

Take five copies, three for the magistrates, one for the clerk and one for the prosecutor. Remember the purpose of statements is to show you of someone of otherwise good character. People sometimes mix them with explanation saying you had personal problems at the time but remember you are trying to convince the court this is a one off problem which will never happen again. You need to consider carefully whether something that could be interpreted as if you are under pressure you may DD again.

I say that because often I have seen people try to offer an explanation but it ends up sounding like justification, and if you justify DD it creates a bad impression. You want the magistrates to be e certain you have learned your lesson.
 
TBH
i got 24 months and offer of course. (so basicly passing course means 18 months)
120 hours community service that resulted in no huge fine.
Both letters helped and the court took them into account by not giving me the 3 years it could of.
Electric bike came today so onwards and upwards,
thanks for the reply people!
 
The guidelines for a brea5 reading in the 90’s is 23-28 months, so they put you in at the lower end. It could have been much worse.
Let us know how you are getting on with the electric bike, a lot of people don’t realise that it is legal to ride them when disqualified.
 
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