Retrospective drink driving - not right surely?
Discussion
But if they see someone who looks to be driving drunk they will, quite rightly, pull them over.
I obviously wasn't driving badly or I would have been pulled - but no, I got away with doing it for 20 years of driving drunk before I was caught - and I live in Northern Ireland, we have a fair few more police about than the mainland.
Practice makes perfect - you do actually (tolerance set aside) learn to drive better when drunk with "practice" - not set off like that mad woman who was busted by her own dashcam the other day, you take it carefully, do nothing but concentrate on your driving, stick to the speed limits, etc.
Which I don't always do when entirely sober. And I imagine most of us don't, you are thinking about other things, maybe on the handsfree mobile, etc.
I am in no way condoning it (I've been busted and it was bloody miserable for 2 years), but people who drink and drive regularly do tend to be better drunk drivers than those who don't.
I obviously wasn't driving badly or I would have been pulled - but no, I got away with doing it for 20 years of driving drunk before I was caught - and I live in Northern Ireland, we have a fair few more police about than the mainland.
Practice makes perfect - you do actually (tolerance set aside) learn to drive better when drunk with "practice" - not set off like that mad woman who was busted by her own dashcam the other day, you take it carefully, do nothing but concentrate on your driving, stick to the speed limits, etc.
Which I don't always do when entirely sober. And I imagine most of us don't, you are thinking about other things, maybe on the handsfree mobile, etc.
I am in no way condoning it (I've been busted and it was bloody miserable for 2 years), but people who drink and drive regularly do tend to be better drunk drivers than those who don't.
Pothole said:
Just popped in to see if the OP has bothered to get any more FACTS. Seems not. Carry on.
Why do people (seemingly) default to "attitude"?I'm busy and haven't seen either the friend who told me this in the first place or the guy in trouble.
I was possibly going to meet up with them this evening but it didn't happen.
I realise you're not getting the complete story, neither am I. But, again, thanks to people who have give me useful info particularly on burden of proof and questions to ask - which have been passed on, some of them had already been asked / ruled out.
guindilias said:
Funny, innit, how threads just stop with no more info...
Very. Didn't realise anyone had posted anything and I had no new information.
Until today. Met up with the guy involved today and got his version of events first hand. Have to say I think he's been let down by the system at the very least.
He had a very bad relationship with a neighbour. Ex con, done time. Parks his car in a visitor bay because it's closer than his parking spaces. Coincidentally blocks access to my friend's parking space. Evening in question it's the last straw and my friend knocks on his door and is told to "f**k off" in front of his 10 yr old son. Then physically assaulted. No witnesses other than 10yr old son.
My friend went back to his house and opened the bottle of wine. Police arrive an hour later, although they say it was 3 minutes after the call.
Really? What do the police attend in 3 minutes? Distance to police station means 75mph average speed.
Commotion outside means my friend investigates and an officer startes talking to him. Breathalysed at the scene.
Without fully understadning why he was offered a blood test later.
There are discrapancies in the police report. It refers to time spent in a holding cell. He never went to a holding cell.
They've mis-timed things by at least an hour etc.
He got seriously messed around and ultimately ripped off by one solicitor and is now on a second.
Police didn't investigate some information they were given. Didn't get CCTV from a local shop (seconds away from my friend's house) which would show time he went in there, and therfore time he arrived back home.
The vexatious nature of the call to the police by the neighbour hasn't been investigated. Luckily he does have messages from this neighbour which show threats and third party information which shows he's made similar claims in the past - reported damage to his car caused by my friend yet at the time my friend was driving a hire car which showed no damage; "damage" on his car didn't actually look like damage, witness reported it looked like a gready hand print
To be honest, it's difficult to see how it's gone this far.
A solicitor did advise my frient to plead guilty for leniency's sake but he doesn't want to plead guilty to something he's not guilty of. In the meantime he's racking up costs - hearing has been postponed a couple of times, once by the judge who basically advised him to get a new solicitor.
Trouble is, no matter how convinced he is of his innocence, he could be found guilty and then ordered to pay ever increasing prosecution costs (couldn't he?) due to the delays. This happened in November 2016. His court date was set and delayed again for a couple of months. He's clearly stressed by it and is also out of work at the moment.
I can't claim to know or have remembered all of the story. But even if he's only been 80% honest with me there's enough to know that this stinks.
The police look to have made errors which they're covering with lies, for want of a better word. Not sure how I can help using information gleaned from a car forum though, so feel free not to reply.
Thanks for the constructive replies so far.
Hackney said:
My friend went back to his house and opened the bottle of wine. Police arrive an hour later, although they say it was 3 minutes after the call. Really? What do the police attend in 3 minutes? Distance to police station means 75mph average speed.
This seems an odd area of dispute given that calls / deployments / arrivals are all recorded a permanent, uneditable digital log. A log that is disclosable i.e. the defence receive copy. Hackney said:
To be honest, it's difficult to see how it's gone this far.
May help your understanding - unfortunately!https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0b228hf/pan...
La Liga said:
Hackney said:
My friend went back to his house and opened the bottle of wine. Police arrive an hour later, although they say it was 3 minutes after the call. Really? What do the police attend in 3 minutes? Distance to police station means 75mph average speed.
This seems an odd area of dispute given that calls / deployments / arrivals are all recorded a permanent, uneditable digital log. A log that is disclosable i.e. the defence receive copy. Also, the police station could be 10 miles away and it wouldn't make a scrap of difference as I'd wager the bobbies attending weren't sat in the station waiting for the call, they could have beenbjust around the corner. We can get reports that show the GPS tracking on our radios, maybe worth asking if that's available...
With regard to the 'holding cell' that's just the room/area between the police vehicle and custody desk where you sit with the arresting officer before being booked on when you arrive at custody. He'd have got out of the vehicle and most likely sat in a bench, in a room with the officers before being called to the custody desk to be booked into custody.
Edited by Greendubber on Thursday 10th May 06:45
GT03ROB said:
I don't get why he has been breathalised, when there is no evidence of him driving after the police were called?
Seemingly based on the neighbour telling the police he was drunk. Even if this was a genuine, innocent claim by the neighbour it’s based on my friend staggering after being punched, banging his head on the floor and being wobbly on his feet when he got up. Trouble is it’s not an innocent claim by the neighbour there’s malice to it.
Thesprucegoose said:
He drank a bottle of wine in an hour but doesn't have a problem. The story still has holes in it.
Fortunately one is not put on trial for problems 
Apologies for any holes, I’ve tried to include everything I wanna told which was a lot over the course of two hours and without taking notes.
It’s not an intentional effort to miss out detail.
Greendubber said:
This.
Also, the police station could be 10 miles away and it wouldn't make a scrap of difference as I'd wager the bobbies attending weren't sat in the station waiting for the call, they could have beenbjust around the corner. We can get reports that show the GPS tracking on our radios, maybe worth asking if that's available...
With regard to the 'holding cell' that's just the room/area between the police vehicle and custody desk where you sit with the arresting officer before being booked on when you arrive at custody. He'd have got out of the vehicle and most likely sat in a bench, in a room with the officers before being called to the custody desk to be booked into custody.
ThanksAlso, the police station could be 10 miles away and it wouldn't make a scrap of difference as I'd wager the bobbies attending weren't sat in the station waiting for the call, they could have beenbjust around the corner. We can get reports that show the GPS tracking on our radios, maybe worth asking if that's available...
With regard to the 'holding cell' that's just the room/area between the police vehicle and custody desk where you sit with the arresting officer before being booked on when you arrive at custody. He'd have got out of the vehicle and most likely sat in a bench, in a room with the officers before being called to the custody desk to be booked into custody.
Edited by Greendubber on Thursday 10th May 06:45
Thesprucegoose said:
He drank a bottle of wine in an hour but doesn't have a problem. The story still has holes in it.
I'm not much of a drinker yet I seem to be immune to red wine, I can drink a bottle and it doesn't touch me yet I know about it if I've had three pints This is my wine glass at home...
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