4 Separate Charges - Result: 3 withdrawn and Minimum Disqualification Period
Date: December 10, 2010
Our client was pulled over by police when driving without headlights through the streets of the inner city. He refused to provide the police with a roadside breath test when requested to do so. He also did not have his driving licence on him at the time he was pulled over.
The Police noticed that there was a hip flask on the passenger seat of the vehicle and made comment of the fact that he was slurring his words and his eyes were bloodshot.
After initially denying the fact that he had been drinking, he admitted to Police that he had consumed a few beers at his mate’s house around the corner.
Due to these facts, he was conveyed to the local Police Station and the Police requested that he submit to a formal breath analysis. He refused to provide the police with a breath analysis despite their repeated requests that he do so.
He was subsequently charged with the following offences:
(i) Failure to provide breath test
(ii) Drive whilst unlicensed
(iii) Refusal to submit to breath analysis
and he received a Court Attendance Notice to attend the local court to face these charges.
When the matter came before the Court, due to the expertise of the solicitor handling the matter in negotiating with the prosecutor, the first of the three charges was withdrawn.
When the matter was then called by the magistrate, our solicitor made representations that the first of the two remaining charges should also be withdrawn and the Magistrate accepted our solicitor’s argument, resulting in our client only being sentenced with respect to the charge of refusal to provide breath analysis, which carries the same penalties as a charge of high range drink driving.
After hearing our solicitor’s submissions and even though the driver had only held his licence for a short period of time (less than 2 years) the Magistrate sentenced the client to the minimum period of licence disqualification being 12 months backdated to the date of the offence, and issued a $1,000 fine (the maximum fine applicable to this offence is $3,300).
It was a good result for our solicitor and the client was delighted.