Drink Driving - Not Guilty

Nick was out with friends on a Saturday night but had decided to drive and therefore wasn’t drinking alcohol. He chose to drink non-alcoholic mocktails which his friends brought him throughout the evening.

Driving home, Nick was pulled over in a routine Christmas drink drive campaign by the local police. He was breathalysed and was stunned when he just blew over the limit. He tried to explain he hadn’t drunk any alcohol but the police arrested him and took him to the local police station where he was breathalysed on the evidential machine which confirmed the original reading.

Nick was charged, given a court date and released. Nick called his friends to tell them what had happened. They reluctantly admitted that they had brought his alcoholic cocktails to try and get him drunk without realising.

Nick sought our specialist legal advice and instructed Mowbray Woodwards to represent him in court. We instructed an expert to determine exactly how much alcohol Nick’s friends had given him. In court we advised Nick to enter a guilty plea and we argued special reasons, claiming his drinks were spiked with alcohol by his friends. The expert was able to confirm that the alcohol in those drinks would have been sufficient to display an over-the-limit reading.

Nick’s friends, realising they had made a huge error in judgement, came to court and admitted what they had done. The magistrates accepted that his friends had put alcohol in his drinks without him realising and Nick avoided disqualification from driving.