Charged with dangerous driving with drugs & alcohol

[LouLou21]

Morning All,
In December 2019 my partner had an accident involving another vehicle (no serious injuries) and was charged with drink and drug driving. He appeared in court in October 2020 and pleaded guilty to the both of them (although over the limit not massively over). On the day of court they also added on a charge for dangerous driving which his solicitor told him to plead not guilty to. He is now back at magistrates court on 21st this month. The solicitor have received no evidence so far from the police. We are so worried he will go to prison for this. I am pregnant with first child and he suffers from epilepsy (which is why he smokes marijuana / Cbd sometimes and we have provided Dr evidence of this to solicitor). What is the chances of dropping the dangerous driving charge? Please note that after the accident he gave up his licence as seizure started again and he had to close his business. What will be the likely outcome here?
thank you

 

[price1367]

Without knowing the circumstances of the accident it is hard to predict the outcome.
The prosecution will give at least 7 days advance notice of the evidence that they intend to rely on, but in the meantime your solicitor should write to the CPS saying that your partner has surrendered his licence because of epilepsy and invite them to drop the case as it is not in the public interest to proceed.

 

[LouLou21]

Without knowing the circumstances of the accident it is hard to predict the outcome.
The prosecution will give at least 7 days advance notice of the evidence that they intend to rely on, but in the meantime your solicitor should write to the CPS saying that your partner has surrendered his licence because of epilepsy and invite them to drop the case as it is not in the public interest to proceed.

Thank you for your reply. His alcohol reading was 117 from 100ml of blood, not sure about the cannabis reading but wasn’t majorly over. At the time we had split up, he was going through a bad patch mentally. He crashed into an oncoming vehicle the following direction, no major injuries. He cooperated with the police etc and they only added the dangerous driving charge when he was at court last. As I said he surrendered his licence after the accident due to epilepsy and had to close his business due to this. We are going with character references.

 

[price1367]

If there was no evidence of bad driving prior to the accident, or evidence of high speed, just that he was on the wrong side of the road, then I would not think that a charge of dangerous driving would stick. If he pleads guilty to the drink / drugs driving but not guilty to dangerous driving at the next hearing (or write as I suggested to CPS outlining the circumstances of epilepsy and licence surrender) they I would think that the DD charge will be dropped.

For the drink / drugs driving he would get about 16 months ban, but he could be offered a drink drive rehabilitation course to reduce the length by up to 25% (unless they gave him a 16 month ban for each offence separately)
BUT a conviction for dangerous driving would mean that he would have to retake his driving test before he he could get his full licence back and there is no reduction by doing a course. It would also have a big impact on insurance for 5 years.
This is a academic if he does not intend to drive again.....