Scared for my family

Convicted Driver Insurance

Everett

New Member
I drove to a pup with some friends intending to leave my card there. After a few hours drinking a fight escalated and my friend's father, who is disabled, was set upon by a group of teenagers who then threatened me and my friend. I felt I had no option but to flee the pub and take my friend and his dad with me, I think I had about 3 malibu and cokes. Not far from the pub I was pulled over by the police and breathalised, blowing 56. I am a 5ft female of very slight build so not sure if this affected the outcome, I hadn't eaten that day either which was silly of me. I was taken to the station, charged, offered a duty solicitor but refused as I wanted to get back to my friend to check if his dad was ok, so not interviewed. I have had a court date come through in the post and am now scared I will lose my job (carer in an old people's home, as I will be unable to drive and will have a criminal record. Please help!
 
Drink driving is a strict liability offence. This means that if you are found to be over the prescribed limit for alcohol at the time of driving, you are liable for this offence.

Your particular breath reading of 56µg would fall within the first of four sentencing brackets. The bracket starts are 36µg and ends at 59µg, which means that you would fall towards the higher end of the bracket. Under the sentencing guidelines, you could face a disqualification period ranging between 12 to 16 months and a either a Band B OR Band C fine.

Alcohol affects people in different ways, and based on your description that you had not eaten and are of slight build, means that alcohol could affect you more than someone of slightly larger build. However, exploring the technicalities would likely require the input of an expert, and in any event, if you are not disputing that you had had something to drink, would not impact the outcome much.

With regards to the circumstances surrounding the offence, it is noted that you felt it best to escape the situation, and this is why you drove your vehicle. This could potentially amount to a defence on the basis of necessity. With necessity the court would generally look at circumstances that are life or death, and this could be investigated to see if there are grounds for a defence on this basis.

If you wish to discuss the circumstances surrounding the offence in more detail, please do not hesitate to contact our specialist motoring team on 0333 009 3335.
 
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