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Original poster

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

283 replies

FigureItOutNow · 09/09/2017 10:11

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 posts:
Original poster
FigureItOutNow · 09/09/2017 12:59

Thanks for responses my alarm did wake me but every time I moved in the car it would go off again - it went off quite a few times and I had the keys in my hand turning it off. I can't judge as to whether I was belligerent because I am normally a very very laid back person and it takes a huge amount to get me wound up or "shouty" for lack of a better word. I know I was not aggressive or anything like that because the police officer the next morning said I was one of the politest drunks she'd ever booked in as I kept saying please and thank you and I'm so sorry to put you through all this trouble, etc type commentsBlush

OP posts:
HerOtherHalf · 09/09/2017 13:02

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.

This is a thread that just keeps on giving with nonsense. Did you come up with that yourself or read it on some Freeman Of The Land site? Of course, our fine police officers are not very bright and they probably won't even realise you're trying to mug them off, but even if they do they're bound to take it in good spirits. It would never cross their minds to challenge you as to exactly how you got the car there or how you got into it. They're also notoriously bad at searching for hidden things - it's just not a skill their job requires.

Original poster
FigureItOutNow · 09/09/2017 13:02

Sorry I'm not really sure how I'm bailed, etc - speaking to the solicitor on Monday to clarify what's going on and what are the possible outcomes. This happened on Thursday night and I've not had the opportunity to really speak to the solicitor properly.

OP posts:
LairyMcClary · 09/09/2017 13:03

So you had your keys in your hand while claiming you had no intention of driving, and are surprised that they didn't believe you?

BoysofMelody · 09/09/2017 13:04

Did you come up with that yourself or read it on some Freeman Of The Land site?

And make sure you declare yourself as 'viilage of the family idiot's and they can't touch you. Honest Hmm

Original poster
FigureItOutNow · 09/09/2017 13:04

To be honest hadn't realised I could be banned given points etc, not sure how I thought this all worked but I thought they'll charge me and give me a criminal record and that's the punishment - didn't think there was more to it. I'm clearly stupidly naive!!! I'm not going to stand a chance in front of the courts am I? (Panic)

OP posts:
Original poster
FigureItOutNow · 09/09/2017 13:05

The keys were for turning the alarm off - do you think that's why they are convinced I was going to drive? I'm not being sarcastic or anything it's a genuine question.

OP posts:
ItsAllAboutThePace · 09/09/2017 13:08

Yes.... you were in the vehicle with the keys in your hand

You weren't thinking straight.... every single person who drink drives is not thinking straight! They all believe they will be 'ok'

Bexta147 · 09/09/2017 13:09

Probably not what you want to hear but my partner was charged for failing to provide a breath test before I met him and he lost his license for 2 years. It Carrys the same penalty as providing a positive test.

Crowdie · 09/09/2017 13:10

I think if I was a police officer finding a drunk person in a car with their keys in their hand I would struggle to believe they didn't intend to drive as well.

Even if they showed me messages to the contrary because having their keys in their hand would suggest drunken thought processes ... #whatcouldgowrong.

Fairenuff · 09/09/2017 13:11

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.

If the police find the keys they make the rather sensible assumption that you would be able to find them too. Especially as you would be the one who hid them. So you would still be drunk in charge of a vehicle.

The keys would need to be somewhere where you could not access them whilst drunk.

LairyMcClary · 09/09/2017 13:11

Your best bet is to stand up in court and tell the actual truth, and stop trying to wheedle out of it when you know you did what you have been charged with. They might go easy on you if you explain and apologise. If you go on blaming the police and acting like it's not your fault, they;ll throw the book at you.

SisyphusHadItEasy · 09/09/2017 13:11

Unfortunately, if you have the keys in your possession, you are in "care and control" of your vehicle, and a drink driving charge is justified.

Your only option is to fight it in the courts, but that does not undo what has already happened.

SisyphusHadItEasy · 09/09/2017 13:16

You are lucky they dropped the other charges - but refusal to provide a breath sample is practically an admission of guilt, and carries the same weight as a positive breath sample.

I wish you well, and truly hope you remember this in the future - celebrating a divorce may have changed your future permanently. If you don't end up with a driving ban, I can assure you your insurance rates will skyrocket and the fines and penalties will be significant.

becotide · 09/09/2017 13:23

get another solicitor, nobody here can help you

RainbowBriteRules · 09/09/2017 13:26

Flowers OP, the whole situation sounds horrific.

It won't help you now but I really think that being drunk in charge of a vehicle is not publicised enough at all. There are so many messages about not drink driving (which of course I absolutely agree with) but the only time I ever hear about being drunk in charge is on here. Where are the adverts and messages about that?

Lots of people probably assume (wrongly) that sleeping drunk in your car is ok (sensible even) and relate the fact that you must be in control of your vehicle at all times to when you are driving only.

BMW6 · 09/09/2017 13:28

I don't drive and I know that it is an offence to be drunk in a parked car..........

dertyyuoih2 · 09/09/2017 13:30

Did you refuse the breath procedure in custody (when you were at the police station) custody areas are recorded, with audio as well?

Trampoline11 · 09/09/2017 13:34

Sorry, have just realised that what I posted was wrong. Long time ago. Pleaded guilty. Solicitor should be able to stress how loosing your license will impact on your work, children etc?

RainbowBriteRules · 09/09/2017 13:36

BMW6, well that's good I guess that it is publicised to others. I was never explicitly told this until I read a similar thread on here.

expatinscotland · 09/09/2017 13:41

Look, it's best to listen to your solicitor, tell the truth in court and see how it pans out. Trying to fight it will get you nowhere because you committed a criminal offense. It's not enough to put something in the bottom of your trolley, try to leave a shop with it and then say you had no idea it was a crime to do that, even if the till operator didn't see it to ring it through. The onus is oneself to know the law.

What you're charged with is more common than you think, and you may not lose your job, but please, please, don't ever do something like this again.

Also remember that you can be drunk the next day, particularly in Scotland which has low drink drive limits, and just don't plan on driving your car at all on a night out or the next day if it's a real bender.

It's an expensive lesson to learn, but it could have been far more costly to your health or someone else's.

MargaretTwatyer · 09/09/2017 13:41

Look at this from another angle.

The police are called to a car with the alarm going off repeatedly. Inside is a woman so drunk it takes 5 minutes to rouse her. She has the keys. She is very drunk and not cooeraptive. She gives the officers a sob story about an abusive ex and promises not to drive. Police say 'Aw, poor you, get back in and have a nice snooze'.

Couple of hours later OP wakes up, panics because she's late for the babysitter and thinks 'I'm probably not that over the limit anyway'. Puts in keys, drives off over the limit. Smashes into another car and kills a couple of kids and gives their parents life changing injuries.

Those police officers are going to lose their careers because they let a drunk keep control of a vehicle. Nobody is going to care about the abusive ex when they're losing their jobs and their families are losing their homes.

Those parents aren't going to care about an abusive ex. They're not going to think having an abusive ex makes it okay to maim them and kill their kids.

The OP would still be going to jail.

The press would still be mauling her.

Asking for sympathy doesn't wash when you're committing illegal acts which put other people at risk. The reason why being drunk in charge of a car is illegal is because it's so likely the person doing it will eventually drive over the limit it gives the police the power to stop that by arrest. As adults if we go out drinking heavily we have a responsibility to make sure we can get home/to a place of safety without using/being in charge of a vehicle before we drink.

TBH I think the police in this case have been quite kind in dropping the charges to the level they have and I suspect it's the most they can do. They caught the OP and she seems to have definitely have committed a couple of offences (drunk in charge of a vehicle, refusing to provide a breathalyser) and possibly others (drunk and disorderly). I think the police's hands are tied and not bringing any charges in a case where they had clearly been committed just because they felt sorry for the OP would be a dereliction of duty at best.

Again, if the OP had drunk driven the following week and had an accident and it was discovered she'd been let off because she had a sob story then they would probably lose their jobs.

Brittbugs80 · 09/09/2017 13:43

With regards to the criminal record check, I thought you would only lose your job if the charge was related to it. So if you stole money from your employer say, you would struggle to get a job in a bank. If you refused a breathalyser and were drunk, it would hinder driving jobs.

It's unlikely you will lose your job for refusing to take a breathalyser test. Have you told your employer?

MargaretTwatyer · 09/09/2017 13:44

It probably won't affect your career either. You're in a shortage profession and it would be a minor conviction which would not reflect on your trustworthiness to do your job. Unlikely to make much difference.

RainbowBriteRules · 09/09/2017 13:46

It depends on the job Brittbugs. Some jobs (NHS, teaching etc) are subject to enhanced checks.