Drink Driving Lawyers Avoid Prison For Second Time Offender

 

Billy came to us as a desperate man in need of the best drink driving lawyers.

 

He had been charged with Drink Driving, and what made things worse was it was his second offence within 10 years so the court would be taking this very seriously.

 

Billy’s reading was 147 in breath.  High.  Very high.

 

It was one of the highest readings our drink driving lawyers had seen at Forrest Williams.

 

Billy was very realistically facing an immediate custodial sentence.

 

We worked with Billy from day one to try and avoid this.

 

We spoke with Billy about the possibility of him having an alcohol misuse issue.

 

Billy was not the typical alcoholic, the popularly imagined character who replaced the water in his water bottle with vodka and sipped that at work.

 

Billy’s story was completely different.

 

Billy had recently separated from his long term partner and so was currently readjusting to life on his own. Shortly before Billy and his partner separated, they were beginning to go through the adoption process.

 

On the night before he was arrested for drink driving, his now ex-partner sent him a photo of him, his new partner and the two children that they had successfully adopted.

 

Understandably Billy was distraught by this news, and like many others, he took comfort in alcohol to make the pain go away.

 

The next morning, Billy went to the shops when he was stopped by the police and found to be over the limit.  He was arrested by the police for Drink Driving.

 

Billy was fully compliant with the police.

 

When we spoke to Billy about this charge, we reached the decision together that whilst Billy is not by any means dependant on Alcohol, he does drink too much and this does need addressing.

 

Billy attended a couple of support sessions before the court hearing and obtained evidence that he had already taken action to address this issue.

 

We prepared Billy’s mitigation focusing on avoiding an immediate custodial sentence, and gathered supporting documents that strengthened his case.  

 

We then appointed one of our senior barristers who specialises in Drink Driving to represent Billy at the court hearing.

 

Billy attended, fully expecting to either be sent to prison that day, or for the matter to be adjourned so that he could meet with probation services before being sentenced to prison.

 

We managed to go one better.

 

We knew how much this meant to Billy, so we arranged for the probation services to meet with Billy that day so the case would be dealt with within one court hearing.

 

The sentence was in…

 

Billy was given a 6 week custodial sentence suspended for 9 months. He was ordered to complete a 10 day Rehabilitation Activity Requirement, and was disqualified for 36 months (the minimum for his case as it was his second offence within 10 years).

 

Billy was absolutely overjoyed by the outcome.  It was more than he had allowed himself to dream of.

 

Billy commented after the court hearing:

 

I honestly cannot thank your company enough.

 

When it’s as important as keeping your freedom, then you need to have the best on your side.  Call our expert team of drink driving lawyers on 01623 397200.

 

Tags: case studies