FIL caught drink driving

[CrazyGoatLady]

FIL (73) drove home from the pub on Christmas Eve, got pulled over for speeding and was over the limit. Said he'd barely had anything to drink, but his brother said he had 6 pints over around 4hrs so he must have been well over. It was about a 5 mile drive home, but on a stretch of A road that often has patrols on it. Fool!

We've had rows over it before and I've said if he ever did it with DC in the car I'd shop him myself. Nobody else was with him on this occasion.

FIL now wants us to help him pay for a good solicitor as he is going to opt for court to try and avoid a ban, as GMIL is very elderly, losing it a bit, and FIL is very involved with her care, he drives over to her house most days. I do not want to give him a penny, as he's been drink driving for years and I hate his attitude, nanny state, they just want your money, I'm a careful driver, it's fine, blah blah. DH is angry with him, but wavering for GMIL's sake.

If DH wants to help I can't stop him, but I don't want him using our joint/family funds to help him weasel his way out, and I feel like he should have thought of his elderly mother before getting in the car after 6 pints. Am I being mean here?

I don't think there is much point pleading innocent, they have the evidence and it just annoys the judge. The most to hope for is mitigation, which is plead guilty, hopefully not have too high an alcohol reading, no previous convictions, apologise, ask to go on a drink driving course and plead that he needs his car for his caring responsibilities. He might just keep his licence if he's really lucky. Unless he has some serious evidence that there was some sort of error by the police a solicitor is not going to be much help.

This

What could they do after the event? Unless caught behind the whee and texted as over the limit there is no proof he was drinking over the limit

Yanbu but let him crack on as he will get a longer ban for showing no remorse or insight and it is what he deserves.

She said he's been doing it for years. Pretty sure there will have been ample opportunity to report him or take his keys which any decent person would do.

Stupid entitled man doesn't deserve a penny of your money. Actions have consequences.

He obviously didn't care enough about his dm to stop drink driving. If he gets let off (which I'm hoping he won't), he'll just carry on

Hell would not only be cold but frozen solid, iced and frozen again before I defended any drunk driver.

He could have killed someone. He was on an A road (so probably speed limit between 30 - 60, was over the limit and speeding. He did not give a s**t about anyone else on that road, only that he had had 6 pints, and felt that limits, whether alcohol or speed, are for other people.

He needs to have the full extent of the sentences thrown at him. I dgaf that he’s in his 70s. He needs to lose his licence - and then, when that happens, you need to take the car keys & possibly the car itself off him. Because if he’s this blasè about the limits, I would bet anything he will continue to drive if he has access to the car, license or not.

But no, do not support him trying to get off. He needs consequences not enabling.

If the message that drink driving is wrong hasn't got into his head nearly 60 years after the law was introduced, with consistent public service adverts, especially at Christmas, then he deserves everything he gets.

I would never help out someone who thought it was ok to potentially injure or kill someone else so that they could have a drink. YANBU.

Look up the sentencing guidelines for driving with alcohol. They're very clear. Depending on his reading he will get a minimum 12 month ban. There is no point fighting it at all, there is no discretion. They may offer him the drink driving awareness course which if successfully completed entitles you to a 25 % reduction in the length of the ban. The best thing he can do is turn up, show some remorse (feigned if he doesn't have any genuine) and plead guilty. His fine will be reduced by 33% if he does that. There's no fool like an old fool.

Christ. Of course don't give him a penny! I'd be raging if my dh gave him any sympathy, let alone any money. He deserves all he gets. Regardless of nobody else in the car, what about people in other cars he could have killed?

It’s a mandatory ban for 12-36 months, depending on the degree of intoxication. No talking out of it. If he’s had a previous conviction for drink driving or a totting ban it will be considerably longer. Don’t waste your money.

You should have reported him sooner. Your kids being in the car or not is irrelevant.

And yes, I know it's hard, and you shouldn't have to. But I reported my own mother to the DVLA and took the keys off a workman who was built like a brick shithouse who was drunk in my home, so I know what I'm talking about.

Do not give this man any money and do not pander to him verbally. Tell him straight.

As previous posters have said, it will be an automatic ban. Paying for a solicitor will be literally throwing money away. The only way a solicitor MIGHT be able to help would be if the breath test was borderline over, or if there was some failing in Police procedure. Having an elderly or vulnerable relative at home reliant on the driver is not a mitigating circumstance.

Some free legal tips can be found here: https://www.forum.drinkdriving.org/forums/free-legal-advice-drink-driving-england-wales.52/ But, as you will see, if you head over there, there is no excuse, no justification for driving over the limit.

He was caught, bang to rights, and no-one to blame but himself. The breath test results tell the whole story. And it's also worth bearing in mind that Magistrates and the judiciary in general take a particularly dim view of drink drivers who engage expensive solicitors to try and weasel out of the charges. Most effecting always are those who turn up to court, smartly dressed, apologetic and contrite. Depending on the breath reading, he may get offered a reduced ban with completion of a driver awareness course. But it will still be a ban.

Hopefully this is the wake-up call that stops FIL from killing someone. Because drink-drivers, and regular ones, are a ticking time-bomb - not a matter of if they will harm someone, sadly ever only a matter of when.

Sorry this has fallen onto you @CrazyGoatLady to worry about. Maybe time to set up an account with a local taxi firm, to cover GMIL's needs? Best wishes to you. x

Edited to add - FIL should also be prepared to see his name in the local paper as a possibility after court. Many local rags put a little inch or two of driving convictions in after the court dates, just to fill space.

If he has an amount he thinks you should spend on a solcitors tell him you will spend it on taxis for him to get to GMIL instead. Then he's on his own.

What an actual arse. he should be thanking his lucky stars he did not kill someone this Christmas. And all the times before.

Don’t fund him. You could be saving someone’s life. Honestly 6 pints is way over the limit. He needs to be off the road permanently.

https://sentencingcouncil.org.uk/guidelines/excess-alcohol-driveattempt-to-drive-revised-2017/

Don't give him any money and concentrate on helping GMIL if her son is no longer capable of doing so.

Driving his car after downing 6 pints and speeding? He's got no chance of talking his way out of that, the arrogant fool. He's very fortunate he didn't cause an accident in which some innocent could have been injured or killed. No, I wouldn't help him to pay his legal costs either.

Don’t give him a penny, he deserves to lose his licence!

I'd be divorcing DH if he bailed his father out on this one. It's basically telling him his behaviour is perfectly acceptable.

I hope the selfish old bastard loses his licence. I HATE drink drivers.

This better save your money for Ubers for you if you want to go and see him as he won’t be driving to see you. And bloody glad he has been caught - a granddaughter of an alcoholic I’m glad he is caught and hope they throw away the key!

The last thing you want to be doing is helping him get off being banned. I don't care about drink drivers killing themselves, but one less on the road means reduced risk of them killing or maiming someone else.

Do not pay anything, and I'm shocked your DH would consider doing so. To pay anything would be, in effect, condoning what he has done. I would at least point that out to DH, and no, if DH insists, it's with his money not family money.

However, as others have said, it's a waste of money as hopefully a court case will fail. I can't imagine on what grounds speeding and over the limit can be explained away...and what if he had an accident with MIL in the car?

Classic case of an elderly person who can't accept they're in the wrong, and take the consequences. And I say that as an older driver myself...

Agree 100