Offence: Drink Driving – guilty plea
Defence: Mitigation – defendant wishing to avoid a community order
Carl Millar was instructed by Mr W who was involved in an accident and was also driving with excess alcohol, with a reading of 99µg of alcohol in 100ml of breath.
Mr W was advised that the Magistrates Court Sentencing Guidelines suggest the imposition of a community order where the reading is at 90µg of alcohol in 100ml of breath or above. Mr W was also advised that his case was aggravated by the fact that he was also involved in an accident. The disqualification was kept to a minimum in the circumstances. At all costs, Mr W wished to avoid a community order as he was a maintenance man in a care home and worked irregular hours. We told the Court that we had concerns that the imposition of a community order of unpaid work would set Mr W up to fail. We explained that he had to work irregular shift patterns with unsociable hours and also had to respond to emergency situations. The affect of a community order would mean that Mr W would not be able to do his job. The court accepted Millars Solicitors assertions and instead dealt with Mr W by way of a disqualification and a fine, instead of punishing him with a community order. Mr W was delighted with the outcome.
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