Police / Lawyer Legal advice urgently needed please 🙏🏽

[Newfor2021]

Hello,
I’d greatly appreciate any advice from someone with a professional background who might be able to offer any advice in these circumstances please?

My son was caught driving his car as a learner driver without a responsible driver / supervisor.

As he’s 17 they de-arrested him at the scene, brought him home, told me (I’d been asleep) and have now fixed an interview date for Wednesday.

My question is there are some mitigating circumstances which will support his reasons as to why he was driving.
Should he just verbalise them in the interview or should he prepare a written statement beforehand? He could also ask some of the people involved to write supporting testimonies - again should he just say these people are prepared to do this or should we gather these before Wednesday?

Thank you in advance for any professional guidance.

A few questions I suspect I will get asked:

He’s planning to plead guilty and at the time apologised profusely and immediately stated why he was going and where he was driving to.

I was going to use the duty solicitor - however I have been advised to ignore their advice to go ‘No comment’ as this will only annoy the police and stop them having the ability to go more lenient on him.

I am in no way supporting or condoning his behaviour!
I am of course dealing with the consequences of his actions - however my child is in his first ever legal trouble and as his mum I will do everything in my power to help and support him from obtaining a criminal record at 17 - as believe it or not he wants to join the police force and this would of course stop him!

Being bullied in prison to the extent that she chose to take her own life is tragic... our prison service does a very poor job of safeguarding and rehabilitating prisoners. But that's an entirely separate issue.

Should she have gone to prison? Yes imo. A custodial sentence was appropriate, even if she was a nice girl with no previous.
Should the prison experience be so bad that inmates are driven to suicide? No
Should prisoners be provided with appropriate mental health treatment and support? Yes

"The police simply do not pull a car over for "no reason". If they have told you this there is more than meets they eye here"

Cars out at 1am during lockdown, driven by teens get pulled over.

@DavidsSchitt

"The police simply do not pull a car over for "no reason". If they have told you this there is more than meets they eye here"

Cars out at 1am during lockdown, driven by teens get pulled over.

So there is a reason then ?

"So there is a reason then ?"

For goodness sake, the OP told you that.
You were implying there is more to it that him simply driving at 1pm because you want to antagonise the OP. There's better ways to get your kicks I promise.

You surely know this? Or are you this fucking irritating in real life? 😂

Cars being driven by teenage boys get pulled over by the police all of the time.

Sorry still reading the thread, if he's awarded six points, he can still learn to drive and pass his test. He will avoid driving license revocation for hitting six points through this loophole. Any additions will see it revoked and him having to pass again though. Insurance costs (as both a learner and full licence holder) are going to be massively prohibitive though.

Best wishes.

Just here again to say it’s irrelevant why he was stopped so please don’t get hung up on that- yes there may have been a reason he was stopped (1am, lockdown, 2 teens in car car that are unlikely to live together, no I don’t know if he had L plates on but if so it’s unusual to have a teen being supervised driving by someone that looks a similar age etc etc).
But irrelevant. Any vehicle can be stopped to ascertain who the driver is. Hope the link works...
www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/part/VII/crossheading/powers-of-constables-and-other-authorised-persons/enacted

@ProfessorSlocombe

Yes they pulled him over for no reason, I did check this at the time.

The police simply do not pull a car over for "no reason". If they have told you this there is more than meets they eye here.

They really do. I was stopped once, it was about 3 am, I was in the car with my husband and 2 kids. We were on the way to Heathrow to catcha plane. We had to produce our plane tickets as they wanted to know why we were out at that time. I'm not sure what they thought we were doing with a 7 year old and 10 year old in the car. The funny thing was I worked in a police station on the next sub-division.

They were fine, just suspicious that we were out in a quiet residential area at that time and it was probably a quiet night.

Hi everyone,

Just back from the interview.

Everything went really well! I was actually unnerved before the interview as the policeman was being so nice, I was worried he was relaxing my son ready to bring down the hammer!
But the whole way through he was just really kind, friendly, nice and understanding.

My son profusely apologised, explained the circumstances and admitted everything.

They’re not sure what if anything he’ll be charged with.

Basically the way it works is the policeman will now create a file, send it to the Youth Justice Team, they’ll discuss the case, liaise with the policeman and possibly my son / his wider circle l.

The policeman suggested my son will most likely get a fine and possibly points. He said it’s highly unlikely it will go to court and might be dealt with as quickly as 2 weeks.

The policeman also confirmed that no matter what the outcome, it won’t prevent my son joining the force.

So relieved!! I’m having a big glass of wine
Thank you again everyone for your support

@NightSkyStarShine

Sorry still reading the thread, if he's awarded six points, he can still learn to drive and pass his test. He will avoid driving license revocation for hitting six points through this loophole. Any additions will see it revoked and him having to pass again though. Insurance costs (as both a learner and full licence holder) are going to be massively prohibitive though.

Best wishes.

Wow I didn’t know that!!

Not sure I’ll tell my son though - lol!

Bit late here but DH is a prosecutor leading a team dealing with this sort of stuff. 6/8 points and a fine, no record is what he would expect.

@EmmaGellerGreen

Bit late here but DH is a prosecutor leading a team dealing with this sort of stuff. 6/8 points and a fine, no record is what he would expect.

Thank you for the input! 🙏🏽

So I’ve just been telling a friend how the interview went, and of course with her loads more came up and I thought afterwards that actually I should share them as I am so proud of my boy!!

So during the interview my son apologised to the policeman for getting his car wet and smelly! The Policemen started laughing and saying don’t worry mate I’ve had a lot worst.

The policeman showed photos of the car, and when he said it was a church wall my son extra apologised for that too and said he hadn’t meant to damage the church or anything.

Before anyone jumps on, I guess why I’m sharing this is because no one is perfect. We all make mistakes. Some big some small. No, maybe you haven’t driven without a licence- but your words can cut someone in half.

The night I first posted this thread I was getting palpitations, anxiety, feeling panicky. I’ve previously suffered from severe anxiety & PTSD..... so I was getting trigger that I was triggered incase it meant going backwards!

But I reached out.

I got level headed sane advice.

I got support.

So what if I now want to say that I was bloody proud of my boy tonight because he actually had the thought process that someone else would have to clean the police car and he may of made it wet for someone.
The fact that he noticed and acknowledged that means that I can’t of done that bad a job!

Oh and I forgot to say - so thanks you lot!!!

And those holier than thou and damn right nasty and spiteful?

Glad it has turned out well, and enjoy your wine.

Great update !
Your son sounds lovely and so do you x

I’m a copper, whole point of the youth panel is to keep kids out of the criminal justice system, realising they make mistakes.
Traffic offences fully admitted - with no other aggravating circumstances, I’ve not seen one go to court yet.
As the cop said tonight, it’s a traffic offence, it won’t stop him becoming a police officer as long as he is totally up front about it all.

Great update.

🍷

Just make sure he passes his test after receiving points. If he's passed between now and then his full license will be revoked under the New Driver's Act (being awarded six or more points in the two years after passing). He'd then need to re-apply for provisional, pass both tests, and upgrade all over again.

Glad you're calmer too

Great result op. Let us know the outcome... hopefully within 2 weeks!

Thanks everyone

What wall? Are you now telling us he crashed into a —church— wall? I thought he was driving along nicely minding his own business at 1.00 in the morning and the police pulled him over for no reason at all?

I am glad you have got it sorted , but it sounds as though both you and your son like the drip feed story telling technique.

@viques

What wall? Are you now telling us he crashed into a —church— wall? I thought he was driving along nicely minding his own business at 1.00 in the morning and the police pulled him over for no reason at all?

I am glad you have got it sorted , but it sounds as though both you and your son like the drip feed story telling technique.

No, that's not what happened.

The police pulled him over for no reason whatsoever. He checked his mirrors, indicated, and pulled carefully over to the side of the road, in a safe place. Check mirrors again, neutral, handbrake. Seatbelt off, then run like fuck from the pursuing coppers, including vaulting over a wall into a churchyard and getting covered in muck.

It's all there in the thread.

I don't intend to be mean to the OP, who has clearly had a time of it. But someone here - probably her DS - is spinning a yarn. I'm not sure it helps anyone for the OP to swallow it, even if the coppers are clearly content to give the kid a break.