Driving under the influence - advice
You go through a drive thru McDonalds and the worker tells you to wait in the parking bay for your food. The kid actually calls the police because he thinks you may be driving under the influence. Then the police arrive and carry out a breathalyser test on you which you fail. This all takes place with the car turned off in McDonalds car park.
Please can someone tell me what the repercussions of this may be? Thank you
Please can someone tell me what the repercussions of this may be? Thank you
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Goodnight.
Ban not guaranteed, but highly likely (12-36 months recommended). If you already have any points on your licence, you will basically be banned.
Absolute minimum is 10 penalty points and a big fine if you aren't banned.
3 month prison sentence (max) is theoretically possible, but unlikely.
http://www.drinkdrivinglaw.co.uk/offences/in_charge_of_a_vehicle_with_excess_alcohol.htm
Pretty much this!
It's a slam dunk, regardless of whether the engines 'off' now... It's unlikely they got a gin and tonic at McDonald's. You can get fines, etc just sleeping drunk in your car seat...
Good on the kid too, people who are idiotic enough to drink and drive, deserve all they get and a damn lot more imo.....
Indeed.
If the OP avoids a ban, they have done extremely well and are very lucky.
The penalty for actual drunk driving (NB: different to 'drunk in charge)' is a mandatory ban.
In theory, if the police have evidence (CCTV, eyewitness willing to testify), they could have arrested the OP for actual drunk driving, but I guess they were playing it safe to guarantee a conviction.
I could be wrong though, so I'm happy to be corrected.
Yeah, they're basically two completely separate offences.
Being in charge is the lesser offence, drunk driving is more serious.
You can be arrested, charged and found guilty of being drunk in charge even if you never put the key in the ignition and the vehicle never moved. If they were just asleep in the car the onus is on the defendant to prove they never had any intention of driving, not for the police to prove that they were going to drive.
Drunk in charge also covers if you were over the drink drive limit while supervising a learner driver, and not physically driving.
Frankly you are a disgrace - driving a car under the influence of drink or drugs. You could kill or maim someone. Just because you wanted to stuff your face with burgers. I would send you down you skank.
your responses and reactions are subdued, why take the risk?
as others have stated, people have died at the hands of a driver who drove whilst under the influence...
What they will do on the other hand is stand there shaking their fingers at you whilst tutting.
You fail to notice that you ate the gherkin.
The OP will most likely receive a ban and have to pay a fine in the region of £1,000-£2,500.
The OP didn't actually say it was him driving.
Worth being wrong and looking foolish when it is something like this, Lives are at stake
Thats my point, a ban wow. How many times have people been banned but still drove their cars? And wow a fine, thats really an appropriate punishment for these types of idiot putting lives at risk.
You could kill or maim someone anyway without being under the influence.
https://www.gov.uk/using-the-road-159-to-203/the-road-user-and-the-law
And most Mcdonalds, have cctv so that would show the person driving in from a public highway and be time coded.
Won't wash. I got a driver banned for 3 years and fined £100 back in the 1970s even though he was in a pub car park at the time. he didn't start the car - he was too drunk, but was done for drunk in charge. The fact that the car park had no gates meant that the Road Traffic Act applied. (His lawyer argued the point that it was private and lost!)
So expect a ban - and a huge - and I mean HUGE thump in your insurance (if not total refusal) for the next 10 years, as well as as potential ban on getting into the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand.
(Note: IIRC a driving ban stays on your license for 10 years, so has to be revealed even under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act)