News

Carl Millar recently represented Miss B at Scarborough Magistrates Court in Yorkshire in relation to an allegation of driving with excess alcohol. The level of reading was at 111ųg alcohol in 100ml of breath. The defendant did have powerful mitigation in that she had no initial intention to drive and the distance driven was relatively short, albeit not sufficient enough to establish special reasons. The Magistrates Court Guidelines suggest a period of disqualification of between 23-28 months where the reading is between 90-120ųg alcohol in 100ml of breath. The Magistrates were persuaded to only disqualify her for 24 months, and offered a further reduction to a period of 18 months upon successful completion of the drink drivers’ rehabilitation course.
In addition, the starting point for such a high reading is a medium level community order which would normally be at least 120 hours. Again, our Mr Millar presented powerful mitigation on behalf of the defendant when the Court considered the impact of disqualification upon the defendant they were prepared to keep the community penalty down to 60 hours.