Drink driving while unfit through drink or drugs
Drink driving - the offence
There are two types of drink driving. The most common is known as driving with excess alcohol. You can easily tell what type of offence you are accused of because it will be written on the charge sheet. If, for some reason, you don't have that you will know if you were accused of excess alcohol if you gave a sample of breath, blood or urine to be analysed.
This type of drink driving can be committed when you drive or attempt to drive a motor vehicle while you are unfit to drive due because you have been drinking alcohol or taking drugs (any type, over-the-counter, prescription or illegal drugs all count).
In this version of drink driving you do not have to be breathalysed at the police station so there is no reading of alcohol level, this means that the police must prove that you have consumed alcohol or taken a drug and that because of the alcohol or drug you are unfit to drive. The police should give reasons for believing you are drink driving. They will often claim that your eyes were glazed, your speech was slurred, you were unsteady on your feet and that you smelt of intoxicating liquor (they are probably the only people in the world to still use a phrase like that).
It is becoming more common for the police to ask you to take part in a sobriety test. These test, previously confined to the USA, involve you completing a series of basic tasks such as walking in a straight line, reciting the alphabet, touching your nose and so on. Failure to successfully complete the tasks will be given in evidence against you by the police.
We can help you beat the police and win your drink driving trial. Our solicitors are highly experienced and know every strategy in the book that we can put to use to win your case. Find out how we go about winning drink driving trials here.
The sentence for drink driving can be very harsh and frequently result in people losing their jobs and homes. Our guide to sentencing drink driving cases will tell you more about the sentences and how we can help you avoid being banned from driving or even ending up in prison!
Find out more
Follow the links below to find out about defences to drink driving allegations and the sentence you are likely to receive if convicted of drink driving.
2. Sentences for drink driving
What should I do now?
Being accused of a criminal offence is a stressful time and you may think that it's impossible to defend yourself or save your driving licence. We can review the case against you and give you our expert opinion on the strength of the evidence against, errors made by the prosecution, possible tactics to have prosecution evidence excluded, defences available and whether you can avoid penalty points if convicted. In 99.99% of cases we can provide this review quickly and cheaply so you can decide what to do once you have the full facts and not just the police's version.
If you haven't already read our pages on sentencing and how we win cases then take a look now. If you think you have all the information you need or you want to ask questions either give us a call or send us a message via our contact us page and a specialist drink driving solicitor will call you back.
You are also welcome to call us and speak with an experienced solicitor about your case for some preliminary advice. Although your solicitor can only give basic advice on the telephone based on what you say you will get an idea of what can be done. There's nothing to pay until you decide to instruct us, so if you decide not to instruct as after speaking on the telephone then it won't cost you a penny.
Feel free to give us a call now on 020 8242 4440 To discuss your options. Or you can send an email via our contact us page.