Friend (more like sister) arrested

[notamumyetbutoneday]

I am in shock so excuse the muddled thoughts
i knew something was wrong as I hadn’t heard from my friend today. We text every day. I last heard from her at 5 o clock yesterday. No messages were delivering to her phone and her facebook account had gone. I messaged her pet sitter who said my friend had called her last night and asked her to had the pets unexpectedly.

at 3pm she rang to say she had been arrested at home last night and taken to a police station where she spent the night in custody

it’s insane it’s like a bad dream she wouldn’t do anything wrong she is a professional woman with an upstanding job

i was in shock I couldn’t speak her solicitor was driving her home

she was crying and couldn’t/wouldnt tell me what it was

shes with another friend now who lives closer who said she’s asleep

what on earth has happened I don’t understand why she would be arrested at home??

posting under an old username

Why did nobody in the venue stop her driving to begin with? Surely someone has to have said to her 'we think you are tipsy you shouldnt be driving' rather than wait till she was already gone to make the call?

I completely agree. I am struggling to understand how this happened.

Oh right, so now we have 'it's the venue's fault for not stopping her.'

What about her responsibility not to drive when she's had alcohol, even if it is one glass?

Not their fault!! No one is saying that. it seems odd to call police after allowing her to drive away rather than seeking to prevent a possible crime.

As i said in my update, I am struggling to support her precisely because I can’t understand why she would have more than 1 glass if planning on driving.

Too damn right. One drink will impair driving ability. The limit is 35, and I believe that the police will prosecute at over 40. So 56 is well into driving ban territory. If she lies about having more drinks when she got in, that would be perjury.

I am not blaming the venue but if she was that obviously drunk that they singled her out to call the police and give her reg etc then clearly her being drunk impaired her thoughts as it would and thats why she drove. Drunk people do stupid things.

They could, but what if she said she's fine to drive? venues presumably don't have any authority to stop people they suspect of being drunk apart from calling the police.

The venue couldn’t have stopped her leaving, and until she got behind the wheel with the keys in her hand she hadn’t committed and offence, so they had no locus for calling the police at that stage. So it’s ridiculous for posters to be blaming them.

OP, in your position I’d disown anyone I know who did this. Drivers who drink at all before driving are putting other people at risk. There is no excuse for it - ever driver knows the score, but some still make the choice to do it. As a child I knew a family of mum, dad and three children. A drunk driver killed them all apart from the youngest child, who was paralysed in the crash. There are similar stories every day, these days more often through drugs as well as drink. Despicable.

I am a rabid anti drink driver, but I find it hard to fathom how this could possibly be prosecutable when no one can say how much of the blood alcohol level was consumed before she drove, rather than after she got home.

I fully get that they can count back from a blood test, but it would surely be a waste of time and money taking it to court with a three hour gap where she could have necked a bottle of vodka?

She may have had just one drink then drove home. She then had 3 hours to drink at home to blow 56. The burden of proof is on the Po-Po, not her. Pretty sure a decent solicitor would demolish their case

There is a Val McDermid novel where someone gets off a Drink Driving charge on the hip flask defence. I thought it was a work of fiction but it is apparently a thing. www.ashmanssolicitors.com/legal-help-hub/hip-flask-defence-drink-driving/

Sometimes someone will report there and then with car reg etc, they might've not known she was driving until they saw her get in her car, the police will send someone as soon as possible but if no cars in the immediate area they will catch up with her at home and test then as has happened here

If there is witness evidence or CCTV showing her visually drunk/staggering and then getting into a car they could reasonably assume that the result was linked to alcohol consumed prior to driving.

I have wondered in the past how this affects campervan people. Because the law appears to be about being drunk in charge of a vehicle anywhere, not just public roads.

That’s ridiculous! If you see someone burgling a house, you’re not expected to try and talk them out of committing a crime before you call the police. This is the same. It’s not the job of venue staff who are probably on minimum wage to manage your friend’s behaviour but they do have a moral duty to call the police if they think someone is drink driving.

Because she’s an idiot?

I think you have to take a step back from her. You clearly aren't accepting what she says as the truth and are waiting for the evidence to emerge.
As you say, the venue were obviously concerned, the police saw there was enough information to follow up. They will be following ptotocol and gathering evidence to make a decision. Also the 'well I've had a drink when I got home ' is a line the police will have heard so many times!
Having recently been hit by a drunk driver, I'm glad the police are taking this so seriously. My situation could have been so much worse but it is still causing a lot of disruption. Even if your friend is exonirated, it will hopefully be a wake up call for her to behave more responsibiy in future.

Which is why I suspect, like an earlier post, that there is more to this than meets the eye.

I rather suspect your friend is playing the situation down. Even if she kept putting drinks down, getting fresh ones and not finishing them, it's still possible to have consumed enough alcohol to be drunk. If the venue called the police, then she must have appeared to be drunk, before driving away. The venue wouldn't have called the police if she'd appeared perfectly sober and capable of driving!

Your friend has been found to be over the limit, the police just need to find out how much she was over the limit at the time she drove. She may or may not have had more alcohol between arriving home and when she was arrested. If it turns out she didn't have any further alcohol or so little it wouldn't have made a huge amount of difference, then she could be in trouble for lying, as well as being over the limit.

I would keep any open mind OP.

I rather suspect your friend is playing the situation down. Even if she kept putting drinks down, getting fresh ones and not finishing them, it's still possible to have consumed enough alcohol to be drunk.

In that sort of situation it's very easy to lose track of how much you're drinking and how much it is affecting you; especially if you aren't eating either.

Never drink alcohol and then drive. It's that simple.

i cant condone drink driving either and dont understand why anyone would consume a drop of alcohol and get behind the wheel of a car.
However to be convicted of drink driving in your friends situation will be complicated. Was the breathalyser where she blew 56 done at her home or the police station? only the police station would be evidential.Did she have a blood test?
Also if she is saying she drank at home in the 3 intervening hours ,it will be difficult to prove she didn't and that she was over the limit at the time of driving. She needs a specialist solicitor and i hope she has learnt a salient lesson.

Lol please what is this nonsense

Go and post that on a thread where it might actually have some relevance, as it doesn’t here.

Wow! So how did the police know? Did someone in the pub see her and assume she
was going to drive away?