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

"OP broke multiple laws" - FFS. Get a grip, she was asleep in her car. Schadenfreude, anyone

It isn't in contention that she broke at least 2 laws, so what exactly should one get a grip on?

Schadenfreude is not applicable either.

Ok after your sarcastic response to me trying to comfort you, I hope they do charge you 

What a sadistic thing to say.

I think unfortunately you need to prepare for the possibility of a ban. Your solicitor is the best person to give you advice, as they will have access to the full facts. The only reason you would get off is if the police didn't follow the procedure properly. There is a form they would have gone through with you when doing the breath test. That includes pointing out to you that it is an offence to fail to provide, unless you have a medical reason why you can't.

If your solicitor is not explaining things to you properly, maybe it would be a good idea to look for another one who is more sympathetic, and can explain where you stand, and what your options are more clearly.

For future reference, for others reading the thread, if you ever need to sleep something off in the car, you need to make sure the keys aren't on you - so eg put them on top of one of your wheels under the body. Then you cannot be charged with drunk in charge.

Someone else mentioned the unit per hour - remember too that you only start processing the alcohol in this way once you've stopped drinking. So ten units = ten hours after your last drink.

It's you who needs to get a grip, StaplesCorner.

You're another who clearly knows nothing about the legalities of vehicles and drinking.

There are 2 offences of failure to provide - the first one is failure at the roadside - that's the 4 penalty points one. The second is the failure at the police station. That carries a minimum of 10 penalty points and discretionary disqualification.
There are few defences to these charges - the only ones with any possibility of succeeding are Ines such as failure to understand (e.g. language barrier), or medical reasons such as severe asthma.
It's really difficult to win a trial on failure o provide - on the whole, if there's no sample there, there's the failure.
A drunk in charge offence has more chance of being successfully defended - you weren't in the driver's seat, the engine wasn't on, and the keys weren't in the ignition.
The general attitude of the officers has little to do with the charge(s) - unless their behaviour was oppressive, violent, or unlawful, then just an unpleasant copper isn't going to be enough to win a trial.
You have a solicitor already - write a list of queries for him - this is bread and butter stuff at the magistrates court - he ought to be dealing with these types of case on a regular basis.

Long post, sorry

www.marymonson.co.uk/motoring-solicitors/failing-to-provide-a-specimen/

You're another who clearly knows nothing about the legalities of vehicles and drinking - its illegal to push a pram on the pavement but the police don't prosecute that. Common sense usually prevails.

If you are the sort of poster who just wants to see everyone in court then really its pointless arguing. I think the OP realises she needs to get a better solicitor before making any decisions and if this thread only gets her to do that then all to the good.

I can't believe they dropped the main charges against you. To whoever said it being the only person in a car while drunk is not a safe place! Who knows what might have happened if the police didn't arrive.

Skyrabbit my apologies.

I have reported my post.

I misread what you said about the 'drunk in charge' bit.

Just going to post a purely factual reply with no opinion as to rights or wrongs of the OP or police officers.
It is an offence to fail to provide a specimen when requested, the DVLA endorsement code is DR60 (fail to provide - not driving) which should you be convicted, is the code that will reflect on your driving licence and need to be declared for future car insurance renewals/ quotes. It differs to fail to provide when driving as that has a mandatory ban starting a t 12 months and not driving has a discretionary ban and an endorsement of 10 penalty points and a fine can be imposed. The following link may assist and explains in more detail:

www.drinkdrivinglaw.co.uk/offences/failing_to_provide_a_specimen_for_analysis.htm
You might also want to look at Sentencing Council guidelines which is what Magistrates (well, their Court Legal Advisers) follow.

its illegal to push a pram on the pavement but the police don't prosecute that. Common sense usually prevails

No it isn't.

Sky rabbit . Its really not helpful to give info about 4 points etc that are not true . Sounds like something from the beano .

Potnoodle - there are 2 offences - the first carries 4 points. In practice, rarely used, but it exists. I mentioned it because other posters had referenced it.

Well if that is truly the case then im sorry . But always thought that failure to provide was the same end result no matter what the situation is .

Op, I know this is off side but being so drunk after only two hours is quite unusual, to be drunk to the extent your own car alarm doesn't wake you when you're in it, and someone has to call the police, and it takes the police five mins to wake you also. That's worrying.

Where were you planning to stay when you started drinking? With the friends? How did you manage to get separated from them?

You put yourself in such a dangerous position, a lone woman, comatose drunk, sleeping in her car.

Ask your solicitor what rhe likely penalty is for admitting guilt, as clearly you were guilty, as others said, and often you get a reduced pentalty for saving court time and this may be the best option for you.

Someone else mentioned the unit per hour - remember too that you only start processing the alcohol in this way once you've stopped drinking. So ten units = ten hours after your last drink

Not so. It isn't kept in a holding tank until you stop drinking.

Skyrabbit is correct - the OP's reference to the length of time in custody probably indicates a charge of fail to provide at the police station, but the charge sheet will tell you exactly what you are charged with.
BTW FigureItOutNow, apologies for not reading back, but did you mention you were answering bail in two weeks? That indicates you haven't been charged yet, but there could be several reasons for that although Policing and Crime Act 2017 made changes to reduce instances of bail.

So the story is

Op got absolutely hammered, separted from her friends (probably because she got so drunk), decides to sleep in her car but kept setting the alarm off and because she was so drunk she didnt know or kept letting it go off. Rather than get taxi home, like she was planning to do the next morning.

The police arrive because of pissed ofd neighbours and op starts claiming she is being set up, belligerent and refuses a breath test.

A nosey neighbour person says police were being harsh. I wonder how qualified the neighbour is, how much she managed to see and hear from her house, wether
She just felt bad for the op and tried to make her feel better, or was the one that called the police and was speaking to Op to fish for more info. Probably not hugely reliable.

Op i am really sorry you found yourself in this position. But being drunk does not mean the police can not charge you. Thats not how it works.

You refused a test and thats what you were charged with. You did exactly what yiu have been charged with. I would be very surprised anyone with a driving license thinks you can simply refuse a breath test and thats the end of the matter.

Are you bailed to Mags or bailed back to the station?

I'm not a lawyer and this is in no way legal advice but I'm agreeing with a combo of FabulouslyGlamorousFerret and UnconsideredTrifles here.

This situation completely sucks, especially as you were trying to do the right thing. However, if your solicitor has advised you to plead guilty (which I think you said they had - apologies if I just dreamt that), I'd be inclined to do it. If you're struggling to understand why, get them to explain the particulars of the offence. If there's something in there that you think "Aha! But I wasn't doing that!" or "Aha! But I think I do fall under that exemption" then you might want to go down that route but I would be inclined to take the wording of the offence as black and white and do bear in mind ignorance of the law is not a defence (i.e. you can't turn around and say 'I wouldn't have done this if I knew this was a crime').

That being said, there seems to be a lot going in your favour for mitigation - you had underestimated how much the alcohol would effect you, you'd just got out of an abusive relationship, your alternative was likely sleeping on the street or putting yourself in a dangerous situation (also, if you plead guilty rather than being found guilty, that also tends to work massively in your favour). If your solicitor is worth their salt, they'll be taking all this into account and coming up with a pretty convincing argument as I type. Touch wood, they'll go lightly on you.

As for the job situation, try not to panic. My experience is HR are surprisingly more forgiving than you'd think. I know of several people who have a criminal record (all minor stuff and mostly committed as teens or young adults, I'll add!) and their employers have barely batted an eyelid when they found out. I would just be straight with them about what happened and, touch wood, they'll take the whole story into account and will support you through this rather than seek to punish you further. As for future employment, bear in mind that a lot of convictions are 'spent' after a certain time period anyway, so you may not even have to disclose.

You should have given keys to your friend x

they could have had a word with her and got her to call a taxi to go home

Given the op was drunk, belligerent and so out of it that her own car alarm didn't wake her, I can't see many taxi drivers queuing up to take her home. Nor is it really in her own interests to be in that situation either.

I would plead not guilty if I were you. Some years back I had a 'bit of a wrangle with police'. Never have before or since. Apparently the woman officer was known for her heavy handedness dealing with the public. I admitted to solicitor that I had been very rude, but she had to me too. I spent all night in a cell and most of the day. I refused to pay the £80 fine and it went to court. Worst experience ever - well almost. The fact that I couldn't stop crying, was not your average criminal (never been in trouble before), my age etc and that the solicitor explained this to the judge meant that he was lenient and I haven't got a criminal record. Your solicitor should be using the fact that you were told you didn't have to take the test. I hope this helps a bit. Sorry if it's unclear. It just makes me so angry that you have to go through this.