What are the drink driving defences?
Once you instruct Driving Defences solicitors we will begin a complete breakdown
of the events surrounding your arrest and the events at the custody suite. There
are too many defences to name but once we begin work upon a case we use a fine
tooth comb to investigate every aspect of the events to see if statute or case
law provides you with a defence. We have listed some of the more commonly used
defences below but by no means is the list exhaustive.
The Intoxilyzer machine
There are various types of machines that can be used to detect your alcohol level
but like all machines they do go wrong. Each machine used should have what is
called type approval and from a Court point of view is deemed to be correct
until it is proven to the Courts satisfaction that the machine was not working.
One of the things we will do is to look at the reliability of the machine used
and assess what you drank to see if the reading you gave is equal to what you
drank. If it is not the machine may be shown to be unreliable.
Post driving consumption
In rare circumstances after having driven a vehicle (and often after a collision)
people drink extra alcohol and then are arrested for drink driving. This is
often referred to as a "hip flask defence". As suggested above there are often
periods of time where the police are not yet involved with an offence where
people continue to drink, often to calm themselves after an incident.
If it can be proven to the satisfaction of the court that the alcohol level
before the extra alcohol would have been below the legal drink driving limit
then a not guilty verdict will be given. Experts opinions are crucial in this
type of defence and a record of what was consumed will also be critical.
Duress of circumstances
If driving whilst intoxicated due to a circumstance beyond your control
incorporating an element of duress the court may find you not guilty. It should
be noted that only in very extreme cases of duress would this defence be
available.
Procedural Error
When in the police station or hospital the police have to follow a rigorous
procedure and failure to follow this procedure can often lead to an acquittal.
Clients often believe the police have done all they should, but after the
procedure is scrutinised by the Driving Defences team it can often be shown to
be defective.
Failure to provide a sample
Failure to provide a sample can
be defended if you have what the Courts would deem to be a reasonable excuse. In
breath cases this would mean problems such as asthma or any breathing issues but
can include anything which is deemed to be a mental or physical inability to
provide a sample. Examination of the breath testing device would again be
required as it can be the case that a person could not provide a sample to a
machine through no fault of their own.
Failure to provide a sample of blood is commonly defended due to a person’s
phobia to needles or a reasonable excuse as to why a sample of blood should not
be taken.
Failure to provide urine is often defended due to a person’s inability to provide two samples of
urine at the required time. All failure to provide charges require the police to
show that you were warned correctly of the fact that failure to provide a sample
would result in you being charged with this offence so it is important you keep
detailed notes of what was said at the police station.