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!

No felon ever in the history of all of time is "better off in the long run" by listening to the police.

OP I'm going to say this kindly because I truly mean it kindly.

STOP spoiling him. Stop bailing him out. Stop mollycoddling him and trying to fix this all for him.

I'm saying this because I've watched my best friend cover up for her teenage son for years. Always excuses and mitigations and her running around trying to help him get jobs or get on college courses or get out of trouble while he fucked up and did nothing. Now he's committed a very serious crime and is going to jail. And tbh I think a large part of it is my friend's fault, as she's brought him up to be an arrogant, entitled young man who knows that no matter what he does, he never faces consequences and never has to lift a finger to sort it out as mummy will run round and do it. Now she's in bits as she can't save him from what's coming.

Stop talking about your son's good character and instead talk about the fact that when you were in bed he drove his car (by the way, why does your 17 year old have a car?! FFS) illegally with other people in the car. He did something to attract the attention of the police and then when stopped he ran. That's what you need to focus on right now. Not 'Oh but he had a reason' and 'He's a good lad really'. If you can't face up to what he did, he certainly won't.

He's lucky he's not facing charges for accidentally killing someone.

If he wants to kill a bit of time he could join the military, keep his nose clean and then apply to the cops.

His running was an admission of guilt lol. Otherwise he might have been able to argue that he was under the impression his friend had a full licence or something.

Dear oh dear.

I hope his solicitor is decent. My only advice would be to find an older solicitor as they tend to have seen every trick in the book whereas a younger solicitor might not have as much experience. Do you have a local newspaper which covers court cases? I'd have a read of that and see whether a particular solicitor appears to crop up quite often maybe? You should be able to read through what solicitors say in court.

I was in court one day and a young girl maybe 17/18 was there on a charge of possession of cannabis or something. The judge, clearly in a lenient mood on the day, said that he wouldn't sentence her or similar as she may wish to travel in the future.

He really fucked things up by running, but that's done now, so no point crying over spilt milk. Going to be a harsh and expensive lesson for him.

Haven't read the whole thread but I don't think any of those offences are recordable so won't show on a criminal record.

A whole load of trouble for his driving licence history but not a standard criminal record as such...and he won't be offered a caution for them either. He'll be summonsed to court and given points and a fine.

The only advice I can give you is that if your ds has to go to court he goes smartly dressed, if the magistrate asks him if he has anything to say he says how sorry he is, it won't happen again & apologise for the trouble he caused the police. My late dp got caught drink driving, the solicitor told him to expect a 2 year ban & a hefty fine, he said all of the above & was so terrified he was shaking that much the magistrate told him to sit down, he got a 14 month ban £150 fine & £80 victim surcharge. Make sure he completes the income form before he goes in the court room & takes his driving licence with him.

OP I think you've had a huge shock and hopefully so has your son.

My dc are now adults but they did some pretty stupid stuff as teenagers. My ds got caught speeding which I was furious about but luckily for him he just got points and a fine.

I'm usually slated on MN as I'm one of those parents who advocates teens taking responsibility for things like their own washing, but if my dc had got into trouble with the police at 17 I would absolutely support them without condoning what they've done.

OP - There is a chance that your son could be referred to the youth offending team which may mean he doesn’t get a conviction but triaged for diversion if he has never been in trouble before. However this is usually only an option if he admits the offence and is remorseful. Believe it or not the police don’t always want to criminalise young offenders. If he goes no comment this will effect the options for police and will most likely result in a charge (he doesn’t have any real mitigating circumstances although if charged the court may consider them in sentencing). Get a solicitor and get them to speak with the officers to scope options. Youth cautions/charges do not impact a criminal record in the same way its does as an adult - get a solicitor!

I cannot imagine any mitigating circumstances that would get him out of this situation unscathed op.

17 year old boys can be idiots. I was in the situation of pressing charges against one a couple of years ago for assault against my dd - there was very clear cctv and mobile phone footage of the incident. It didn't get to court, but he admitted doing it, and like pp said, now has a marker on his criminal record that will prevent him from travel to USA/Australia etc, and working anywhere requiring a DBS check.

Your son made a stupid, momentary decision, but one that will affect his future for some years to come. I have no doubt he knew what the risk was but weighed up the probability of getting caught and took it anyway.

He's lucky he's not facing charges for accidentally killing someone.

Why? No suggestion anyone was harmed

@peskyginge are you legally qualified

@Puzzledandpissedoff

So no mitigating circumstances, no essential emergency, just bring a prat

To be fair OP was at pains to say there were mitigating circumstances which supported his need to drive - in fact this formed the thrust of her opening post

However despite being asked repeatedly she's chosen not to say what they were, so who knows?

The only way there could be mitigating circumstances is if the DS was in a life or death scenario. The fact that the OP won't say what the mitigation is makes it clear that that's not the case.

Needing to get home and not having anyone to supervise is not a mitigating circumstance - that's what taxis are for.

@Nishky

He's lucky he's not facing charges for accidentally killing someone.

Why? No suggestion anyone was harmed

Eh? The fact that he didn't kill anyone is why he was lucky.

Are you seriously suggesting that it's fine to drive without knowing how to, or whilst drunk, or like an arsehole, as long as you don't actually kill anyone?

Thank you so much to all of the lovely posters who’ve taken the time to give advice or share their personal stories.

I’m going to have a good chat with my son this morning and see what route he wants to take - either to use a duty solicitor or get legal representation beforehand.

He already admitted and immediately apologised to the Police and explained straight away why he was driving, as I said he wasn’t driving dangerously it was a routine check as it was 1am.

He was driving a few miles down the road as his friend was cutting herself and was suicidal. 2 weeks ago this happened with another of his friends, I refused to drive to her (the previous friend) and she ended up unconscious in a bus stop and 2 days in hospital.
He knew I couldn’t drive as I’d taken a Diazepam for my back.

Please don’t give me lectures on what’s he’s done, what he should of done differently or how you think I should be handling this.
You have no idea what the consequences are for him at home nor the discussions we’ve had.
He knows he was reckless and stupid.

I’ve also spoken to him at length about getting involved in people’s drama - the shocking and sad thing is, his girl friends sharing self harm, crying and being suicidal is becoming more and more common...... however he’s not their counsellor / healer / hero and he shouldn’t feel this level of responsibility for them! I know some of this is clearly stemming from his need to be liked / to help people / to always be the good guy, only know it’s totally backfired on him and he’s the one facing criminal convictions and already owes me £1500+.

The girl who was self harming is ok by the way, they sent a third friend to go and be with her. Her parents know, but I believe like many families, Shea not getting the support she needs as mental health services are over run.

Oh and just to say I had a valid reason for not going to the aid of the previous girl.... she was 30 mins away and already had alerted a different friend of hers who would of been there sooner - so there was no point is both going.

I can understand how much stress he was under and probably did feel that it was a life or death situation. However, I hope realises that he could have caused a lot more harm to someone by driving without a license or insurance. It might be good to discuss with him all the different options if this happens again with another suicidal friend eg call the police/ambulance, ask another friend to go round if he can't. It sounds like he was trying to do the least wrong thing here. I'm glad the friend is ok.

@Yebanksandbraes

I can understand how much stress he was under and probably did feel that it was a life or death situation. However, I hope realises that he could have caused a lot more harm to someone by driving without a license or insurance. It might be good to discuss with him all the different options if this happens again with another suicidal friend eg call the police/ambulance, ask another friend to go round if he can't. It sounds like he was trying to do the least wrong thing here. I'm glad the friend is ok.

Thank you.

Yes we’ve since discussed it..... it’s somehow his way of coping with his own mental health during this pandemic has been to be the nice guy / go to guy / friend and support to everyone. But it’s at a cost to his own mental health and now driving licence / and potentially his career.

He also knows he was reckless to drive, but to be honest he only failed his test in Dec due to driving too slow (so 1 major fault and no minors I think?) and has been driving nearly every day as we drive to where we walk the dogs, food shopping, delivering food shopping to my mum and do volunteer food deliveries for the Salvation Army.

He was planning to take his test again as soon as lockdown lifted - so although he’s not passed his test I can see why he took that split second decision to jump in the car and go to her without really considering that he was endangering not only his life, his friends and every single person they passed.

And please before anyone jumps on - I am NOT excusing his behaviour.... but I need to understand his thought process behind why he did what he did as he is not some reckless idiot that goes around doing things for a kick.

I'm a criminal solicitor.

I'm afraid the police might not like no comment interviews, but they keep a lot of people from being charged with crimes.

That advice may be correct in this situation where your son has been caught driving a car with no licence, and then legged it from the police as there's unlikely to be a defence.

Definitely get a decent solicitor. They are on your side, the police officers conducting the interview are not. Their job is to gather sufficient evidence for a prosecution.

Thank you @Sunshine1922 my son and his dad are hopefully sourcing one today.

My husband is a retired police officer. When our kids/GC got to 10 or 11ish he drummed into them to say nothing to the police other than to ask for a parent and/or solicitor.

I think it's pretty certain that the reason explained above will not be considered anywhere near sufficient mitigation. Taxis exist, and it's not clear why her own parents couldn't be alerted so they could go and pick her up from wherever she was. This was someone else's drama and there were almost certainly other people in a better position to intervene than him.

I hope he's learned a valuable lesson. It's a harsh one to learn, but he will think twice next time he feels that he is expected to act the hero to his own detriment.

Goes without saying that even when he is allowed back behind the wheel, he'll potentially be paying significantly increased insurance premiums for a good few years. A lot of insurers will refuse to even provide a quote.

@RumpoleoftheBaileys

Thank you.