Is this normal 7 months no court date?

[gasman70]

Hi, I currently have an employee that has crashed his own vehicle under the influence of alcohol and caused damages to 10 council property railings, it has been nearly eight months now and he still has not been to court or had any correspondence, which we are very surprised about, he has given blood and was twice the legal limit and failed breath test which was taken in hospital, he also left the incident, this situation has left our company struggling as he is not currently driving which is part of his role but technically he has not been convicted?We have stopped him using company vehicles for insurance reasons.
The employee has chosen to ignore the situation and not contact the courts or police and we do not have the rite as an employer to do so. Does this sound normal to take so long to be convicted?
The employee seems to think that the courts have left it too long now to convict him and he is now free to carry on.
Please help answer this ?
Kind regards.

 

[SeanJoyceStephensons]

Taken from the date of the offence, the Police have six months to lay the relevant information with the Court. After six months it would be an abuse of process for the police to initiate proceedings. It might be the case that whilst he was over the limit when the breath test was taken, the blood test results was returned under the legal limit. It usually takes a matter of weeks for blood test results to come back from the lab.

If for whatever reason your employee received a Court summons and chose not to attend Court, there would likely have been a warrant issued for his arrest given that eh would have breached bail. If he has not been summoned to Court or arrested to appear before the Court, then it is quite likely that the matter is no longer going to be pursued.

 

[gasman70]

Thank you for your help Sean,
It’s now been around eight months since employee was charged, Employee has now contacted police and the police have returned a letter saying he will not be charged as they have made a paperwork mistake and they have gone over their 6 month’s time to prosecute, the matter is now closed.
After eight months of torcher the employee and employer are finally smiling again?!

Now is the question? will his insurance company have to pay out on the vehicle and damages that he has crashed and written off? or should you not push your luck as this could open Pandora’s box as technically, he has now just crashed?

 

[SeanJoyceStephensons]

An insurance company may suggest that the policy has been invalidated as a result of the presence of alcohol. Whether your employee was charged or not is potentially a separate issue. I can advise regarding the criminal implications relating the this incident but not in any detail relating to the implications on the validity of the insurance policy. I would advise that you speak with a civil RTA solicitor for clarification.