AIBU to think I can fight this? Mumsnetters I need your help!

[FigureItOutNow]

Please be gentle with me - I'm very stressed over this!
Sorry it'll be a long post but bear with me.

Last week my divorce from a very abusive husband was finalised. I'm late 20s with 3kids under 7 from this man. As part of the abuse he completely isolated me from my family.
Anyway my younger sister has some friends in a nearby big city - she said if I could find a sitter she'd come to this city and we could go out with some of her friends to celebrate (I have no friends at the moment). My neighbours 20year old daughter offered to babysit overnight as long as I was back by 9 as she had work later that day.

On the night out I drove up to city with intention that if I wasn't in a fit state to drive back home by 8am next morning I would get a taxi back home and then come back with my kids on the train ( they love trains) to pick up my car so I parked it somewhere where I knew I wouldn't be charged if I had to leave it at 8am.

On night out I managed to drink far more than I could handle (easy as I haven't drank in years due to abusive ex being controlling). I started feeling really sick at about midnight (2hours into the night) and somehow got split from my sister and her friends. I was feeling really crap and decided to go sleep in my car. I messaged my sister and told her where I was and she said that's fine they'll get me from the car on the way back to her friends.

I was fast asleep in passenger siding my car but alarm kept going off and someone called the police. They came at about 3am and it took them about 5min to wake me up as I was so gone. Anyway they started trying to say that I was drink driving and I said how could I be drink driving if I'm fast asleep in the passenger side? Lots of yeah but you were planning to weren't you/stop lying/ tell the truth type of statements. I was so upset at this point called my sister and had her confirm our plans, even showed them our messages with our plans to go back to her friends.
There were 4 police officers at this point and I could hear discussing if they could charge me with drink driving to which one of them said no but they could charge with being drunk and in charge of a vehicle. They came and told me that they were arresting me for this charge. They asked me to breathalyser but I refused as I was paranoid they were trying to frame me for drink driving (I know I know but I was really drunk and this was a stupid thought process) and I asked them so many times why they wanted to breathalyser me when I had openly admitted that I was drunk and NO INTENTION at all of driving but was waiting on my sister and her friends.

Anyway they arrested me - so so so distressing for me as I've been driving since I was 18 never had a parking/speeding/any ticket whatsoever as I'm one of those annoying people that follows the law to T as I'm terrified of getting arrested (oh the irony).

In the end I spent the night and most of the day in cells, they dropped all charges except the one of failure to cooperate by refusing to breathalyser so please mumsnetters help me figure out if I can fight this. I'm a lone parent and I work in the healthcare industry so could potentially lose my job over this as my solicitor said it would come up as a criminal record in all my pre-work checks!!!

I don't understand why the officer never said it was a criminal offence to refuse the breathalyser, when he asked me to do it and I said I didn't understand why he was asking me to do it he said that he was asking me to do it and that was all the reason he was giving

Thanks all and thanks fabulous I have a meeting with my line manager on Tuesday (earliest he is available) as I didn't know who to notify about this but will contact HR Monday morning. And I'm reassured as you've said sometimes people do have stuff like this when applying for jobs. Not the end of the line after all!

You need a better solicitor.

Oh would everyone just be a bit kinder? She's really upset, something horrible is happening, and you don't see the point of this thread?! Pull the other one? How callous are you? OP, legally no one knows, clearly , if they are going to charge you. Posters just seem to be judging and doubting. I have no idea either, sadly, but I really hope it is all ok, as it sounds like you had a really unfortunate incident, after a massively shit time. I hope you find out quickly, so it doesn't hang over you and stress you out.

You might find this useful too.

www.drivingdefences.co.uk/drink-driving/refusing-to-provide-a-specimen/

I agree with your solicitor - I am truly sorry for your other circumstances, but yes you have to deal with the consequences now. Your solicitor will be best placed with all the information of the case to know whether there's any other ways of getting the case dropped, not randoms on the internet. Sorry. But read the link, it might help you.

I am hugely grateful they've dropped the other charge.

I'm not playing victim at all, sorry if it seems that way - not sure how I should phrase I was drunk in a better way?

They've dropped the charges of being drunk in charge of a vehicle so what does it matter that you refused the breath test ? Surely that would be used to prove the charge they have dropped.

Ask if any of the officers had body cams on as this could back you up regarding the conversation about the legality of refusing the breath test.

Great to see others kicking you when you're down

Unfortunately I don't think you're going to be able to fight it, but it really isn't the end of the world. What's done is done. Try not to stress too much about it.

Oh that's a great link hodge - everything answered in one go.
Thanks all I'm off as I see there's nothing I can do about this and that it's not the end of the world apparently!

"Deal with the consequences of your actions" a lone women who was drunk went to her car (a safe place) she wasn't going to drive and has messages proving her intentions were not to drive. So what actions were wrong.
The police came and she panicked, she was in a strange town, separated from her friends and drunk, her actions sound reasonable to me.

Quick seems that as soon as you refuse the breath test you have committed the offence. However the min punishment in 4 penalty points for 4 years. So I think you should prob plead guilty and hope for that.

If you plead not guilty sometimes the Crown Prosecution Service decide not to prosecute as it's 'not in the best interest of the public.

This really means that they don't think there is enough evidence to get a guilty verdict or, as would be in your case, they don't want to spend the money on going to trial.

It's a gamble but might work in your favour. See what your solicitor thinks.

Quick google that should've read.

So you're asking for a loophole to avoid the consequences of something you've admitted to?
I do have sympathy, and it seems hard that sitting in a car drunk can result in being charged, but that bit has been dropped hasn't it, the only remaining charge is that which you are categorically guilty of. It's irrelevant whether someone else 'got away with' something or not.
Hope it works out OK for you.

They were doing it to get you either way. If you supplied the breath sample they would confirm you were drunk and could be changed with drunk in charge of a vehicle, even if you hadn't and wouldn't drive they don't care. As you didn't provide the sample you can't be charged with drunk in charge of a vehicle as they can't prove you were drunk so they will do you for failing to provide a sample.

The police are so very overstretched that you can report someone drink driving everyday and they will do nothing because they need to catch them, hands are tied, etc etc. But they can find you asleep in your car, clearly not driving and you can be charged. Completely bonkers but police & cps have the power to be inconsistent and arbitrary if you piss them off.

Btw what happened with your babysitter? Did they get to work on time?

I suspect it's partially your attitude that has got you into this situation though.

If you'd given the breath test-use your common sense, if it was optional to do it, then anyone who thought they were over the limit would refuse, then I suspect you'd be looking at a ticking off and a don't-be-silly.

The other issue is if you were that drunk at 3am, then I think there's a very high chance that you would have tried to travel back in the morning still over the limit. So arguing you had no intention to drive over the limit would be incorrect.
You would have thought you were fine, but wouldn't have been. It's approximately 1 unit wears off per hour, I think, so you'd have had 5 units only worn off between the time they woke you and the time you were planning on setting off at the latest. I very much doubt you'd be under the limit from your description.
This is the guidelines as to how much is safe to drink the night before driving women no more than 7. (This assumes that no alcohol is consumed after 11.30 pm, and that driving does not take place before 8 am the following morning)

Once they'd seen you, then it was probably right to take you in for both your safety and the safety of other people. Having taken you in, I don't think they can release you until you are sober-they have to be clear you understand.

I very much doubt you can fight this, and I suspect the more you fight the more determined they will be to continue it because they will see it as refusing to admit you were wrong and may well reoffend.

I'd say the best thing to do would be go in, admit it and apologise.

Yeah trash seems to be the case! When I went the next day to pick my car up a lady came out if the flat and said she'd come out and had seen the police being completely unreasonable with me. She says there was one officer in particular who seemed really ticked off with my attitude as I was coming off really reasonable and he asked me if I understood how much trouble I was in and I started crying and said yes I'm in a job where a criminal record could lose me my licence and he then said to his colleagues I think we can charge her with drunk in charge of the vehicle - she said it seemed like he just took a disliking to me.

Oh well - life goes on right

The difference between you and your ex-H is that you are low hanging fruit, its easy to pick you off. You went to sleep in your car drunk, if the alarm hadn't gone off no one would have cared or noticed, but once you were on the police radar they really really wanted to do you for something.

Sometimes the police are amazing and fabulous, and sometimes they are just misogynistic bullies. It happens. I agree get a new solicitor.

Ignore the nasty posts, some people are just horrible for the sake of it.

I'd call some other solicitors on Monday. Find one that's prepared to fight your corner.

You have your messages to back up that you didn't intend to drive.

If necessary I'd go to court because in my opinion (and friends experiences) magistrates are mostly quite reasonable people.

Good luck.

Is there any chance you were spiked?

I guess I don't really understand from this story why, as you had been prepared to get a taxi if necessary, you didn't get a taxi home and decided to sleep in the car.

Having done so, and the police being involved, and you realising that it's actually an offence to be drunk in charge of a car, having established the texts that you were only sleeping, why you didn't just cooperate with everything they asked? From their POV they can't be sure that you won't wake up and try to drive home and would be irresponsible to leave you.

Obviously you were drunk so you weren't on the ball, but you seemed on the ball enough in some ways.

I totally understand that you didn't mean to get yourself into this mess. But I think that you'll just have to take responsibility refusing the breathalyser because you did - what's the point of fighting that? That you did so because you were drunk and didn't understand the implications isn't really mitigation. From the law's POV it's simply a good reason not to get so drunk.

I feel you accept the charge, may they not let you off with a fine?

I suspect it's partially your attitude that has got you into this situation though - I expect that its the attitude of the officer(s) that brought the charge. I notice they weren't worried about her welfare, just concerned with charging her with something. You're lucky they didn't get you for riding a bike without a light.

I hope this works out for you, OP. This was an honest mistake, and there are so many reasons why it's not in anyone's interest to charge you.

You have three children to support. What happens if you can't get a job? You will rely heavily on the state for benefits. That isn't in anyone's interest, and would be a terribleness shame as you are a valuable contributor to your employer.

Good luck xx

OP seriously get a different solicitor and don't plead guilty. I've seen someone who should be in prison for kidnap and ABH get off just because a solicitor could twist witnesses (including police) testimony into looking good for their client.

Like a PP says CPS will probably drop the case as it would cost more than they could recoup.

^If you accept the charge not I feel you accept the charge.