KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
sample was at least that at the time you drove, even if it was an hour, two hours, or five hours earlier. As unfair as it may seem, they are perfectly entitled to rely on that assumption.
It is up to the defence to prove, on the balance of prob- abilities, that you drank alcohol after driving and that it is only because of that additional alcohol you were above the limit (ie that at the time of driving you were under). That is commonly known as a ‘hip flask’ defence.
I assume you must have been given a court hearing. That will be for plea. At that hearing you must plead not guilty and the case will be adjourned for trial. We will have a couple of months to prepare the case.
summonsed to court, we will look at entering a not guilty plea and defending it.
Defending it in court would be a different matter. There seems to be two separate instances; passing the cyclist too close, which we need to examine on the facts, and then pulling into the left which we need to clearly distinguish from any form of road rage. We need to put the blame onto the cyclist for taking a swipe at your car.
It is very defendable, and we have won similar cases in the past, however it does need to be handled carefully.
Q
I’ve been charged with drink driving which I think is unfair. I’m a delivery driver and I need my licence. When I finished my shift I went to the pub just for a couple as it had been a really hard day. But I only had
two pints. When I got home, I accidentally reversed into my neighbour’s car. I only caused a little bit of damage and I absolutely was going to tell them about it. But my neighbour came out all aggressive and started accusing me of drink driving. I didn’t want to get in an argument so I went into the house. Being shaken up by the argument I sat down and had a large glass of wine. The police arrived about an hour later and arrested me for drink driving. I told them I had been drinking at home, but they didn’t want to listen. I gave a reading of twice the legal limit.
How is it fair they can charge me with drink driving when I had been drinking at home and they didn’t even catch me behind the wheel?
A
Unfortunately, they are perfectly entitled to charge you. Under section 15 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 the police are entitled to assume that the amount of alcohol in your breath at the time of the
MAY 2022
Firstly, we need evidence to prove that you drank alcohol after driving. This can come in two ways – both from the prosecution case and the defence case. We get evidence from the prosecution to show that you did raise it both at your house and at the station. If we can prove that your natural reaction to the arrest was shock and that you were protesting your innocence, that will help. But if the neighbour has given evidence that you were drink driving, that may damage our case. In addition to that we can advance our own evidence. Were there any witnesses to you drinking at home? Do you live with anyone who can give evi- dence to confirm that?
The second half of the defence is that at the time of driving you would have been below the limit. We may need a toxicologist to provide an expert report in that regard. They will be able to work out what the reading would have been having consumed two pints at the pub, and then confirm what the reading would have been when you drove. The report will then add on the alcohol that you drove after driving and see if it marries up with the police reading, ultimately to prove you are telling the truth.
For driving at twice the legal limit you will be at risk of a 17-22 month disqualification as well as fines and costs. If you run this as a trial and lose, you will lose credit in sentence which means you could receive a longer ban and will certainly receive much higher fines.
We therefore need to make sure that we are fully prepared in order to give ourselves the best possible chance.
If you need advice on motoring matters please email
advice@pattersonlaw.co.uk or for regular updates on road traffic law follow us on
facebook.com/PattersonLawMotoringSolicitors or
twitter.com/Patterson_law_
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