Gilln1
Well Known Member
That's a great result.So I thought I would update after court today, though I am still in shock, but for a good reason.
I hired a solicitor and we talked a couple of days before where we discussed thar u had been charged with 'drunk in charge' and not drunk driving. He talked me through the lesser sentencing guidelines of this but that this charge could change at any time before my plea, and the evidence was strong.
When I got to court, my name was still on the wall with drunk in charge and my solicitor said as it was showing here it would be unlikely to change. When we got into court the prosecutor announced the charge was changed to drunk driving. My solicitor commented that we needed to discuss as this changes a lot and I left the court whilst he said he would try and persuade the prosecutor to stick to the original charge due to this being such a last minute change. This worked and the prosecutor agreed (and I never would have challenged this myself or maybe duty solicitor wouldnt either).
With this charge my accident was no longer an aggravating factor. So all I had was mitigating factors of clean licence, good record, good character witnesses.
Somehow I have walked out of there with an £800 fine (including court costs) and 10 points on my licence (maximum on drunk in charge is a 6 month ban) and no community order (also in range for my breath alcohol reading).
This is kind of a fluke because of lazy police charging and a kind magistrate, but also because I had a solicitor to push for me. I'm immensely grateful for that but I want to add that this doesn't take away what happened and what could have happened so this doesn't change my sobriety etc. I feel so fortunate as I know this isn't a normal outcome.
Good for you. You must be very pleased !
You can now put this whole episode done to 'experience' and learn from it.
We'll done