Posts Tagged ‘drink driving defences’

Motoring Solicitor’s Diary – Birmingham Magistrates Court

Posted on: September 3rd, 2010 by motoringlawyers

Back in my home town yesterday for a drink drive trial.

We were running a technical argument in relation to the procedure at the police station, I had asked for the video of the intoxiliser room the day after the first hearing. It arrived on the morning of the trial!

Myself, the prosecutor, legal advisor, police officers and my client watched the video at length.

I so often hear from clients that the police have told them they will get a small fine and can avoid a ban. I always assumed that it was just to keep the clients quiet. Yesterday was an eye opener.

As we watched the video we heard the police officers tell the client over and over again that he would be able to keep his licence if he told the court that he would lose his job. Even when the 3 legally qualified people in the room told the police that this is not true they still insisted that they knew people who had argued special reasons and kept their licence.

Scary stuff!

Lets be clear, if you are found guilty of drink driving you will be banned from driving for a minimum of 12 months The only exception is if you can show that your drinks were spiked. You cannot avoid a ban for drink driving because you are going to lose your job and if a Police officers tells you that you can – ignore them!

**Steve Williams is the Motoring Solicitor, these diaries are based on true case, details, including the court have been changed in order to protect the clients confidentiality. Not all of Steve Williams’ cases are reported in the diary.

If you would like advice from Steve Williams call 01623 397200

The vital difference between drink driving and failing to provide a specimen

Posted on: April 5th, 2010 by motoringlawyers

I was reminded this weekend of the important difference between drink driving and failing to provide a specimen.

I took a call on Easter Sunday from someone who had found me on the internet. He had been charged with failing to provide a specimen, having been arrested originally for drink driving.

He was in a predicament and wanted to tell me his story.

He was at a family function, he was staying the night and had popped out to his car to get some CD’s for the party, as he got into the car to get the CD’s the police arrived and arrested him for drink driving. He was taken to the police station and ultimately kept for 8 hours. He was understandably annoyed that he had been arrested when he had not done anything wrong, he had not had chance to tell anyone where he had gone and no doubt people were worrying about him.

He felt he had been treated badly, heavy handed and arrested unfairly. He said that he thought the police had no case against him in relation to drink driving because he had not driven the car, nor was he going to until the following morning.

I agreed with him that he appeared to have a good defence to drink driving or to being drunk in charge. Then he explained that because he knew he had not committed an offence he refused to give a sample.

That’s where it all started to go wrong and I had to give him the bad news that he did not have a defence to failing to provide a sample and that he would be banned from driving.

He did not believe that this could be the case and this is a mistake that many people make. It was really hard to explain to this man, a decent guy who had done nothing wrong that he was going to lose his licence and consequently his job.

It is so important that people remember the difference between drink driving and failing to provide a sample. If you have a defence to drink driving it is essential that you give a sample, it would not have mattered in this case what the reading was. If he had been 5 times over the limit the police would still have to prove that he was in charge of the car. He would have a defence simply by showing that he was not intending to drive until such time as his alcohol level was below the legal limit. He would have had plenty of witnesses who would say that he was staying the night and that he had only gone to get a CD. All of this is irrelevant to a charge of failing to provide a specimen. He wasn’t charged with drink driving or being drunk in charge of a car and by refusing to give a sample he had provided the police with an easy conviction.

The only thing he could do in this situation is to try and argue special reasons not to be disqualified.

For more advice call 01623 397200 or click Drink Drive Solicitor

Nottingham Drink Drive Solicitor advises on possible defences

Posted on: November 19th, 2009 by motoringlawyers

As a specialist motoring solicitor I see a lot of cases in Nottingham, London, Birmingham and throughout England. There appears to be a lot of misconceptions about drink driving.

A lot of people confuse what amounts to a defence and what is special reasons, I even see this mistake being made by non specialist motoring solicitors.

There are very few defences to drink driving. Basically they are – either you weren’t driving or you hadn’t been drinking. There are technical defences to drink driving and these relate to the drink driving procedure. To prove a case of drink driving the prosecution have to show you were driving and at the time you were over the legal limit. If you are caught at the scene and the police can show that you were over the legal limit then it is unlikely that you have a defence to drink driving unless they make a mistake on the drink drive intoxiliser procedure.

If you were not caught at the scene then you have a potential defence to drink driving. If you can establish that you drank after you drove then this is a defence, simply put; at the time of driving you were not over the limit.

How would you go about proving this? You are going to need an expert to give evidence of the effect of the post driving drinking. One of the questions you will be asked when giving a breath test is “have you drank since the accident?” If you have then it is essential that you tell the police this. You will probably then be interviewed and a detailed note will be taken of what you had to drink, how much and when. This will form the basis of the experts report who will be able to calculate what your breath reading would have been at the time you were driving by taking away the effect of the post driving drink.

If the experts report shows that you would have been under the limit at the time of driving then this is a valid defence and you should plead not guilty at court.

In terms of technical defences these are rare, the police have a form to fill in to help them through the procedure and generally mistakes are avoided. That is not to say mistakes are not made and a good specialist motoring solicitor will go through the form to ensure it is accurate.

For further advice from a drink driving solicitor contact us anytime on 01623 397200 or email at info@motoringlawyersonline.com

Motoring Advice Blog

Posts Tagged ‘drink driving defences’

Motoring Solicitor’s Diary – Birmingham Magistrates Court

The vital difference between drink driving and failing to provide a specimen

Nottingham Drink Drive Solicitor advises on possible defences

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