What happens after a drink driving arrest? A step-by-step guide

At the roadside

A police officer who has reasonable grounds to suspect that you have alcohol in your body, or who stops you after a moving traffic offence or a collision, can require a preliminary breath test at the roadside.

That roadside device is a screening tool. It is not the reading used to prosecute you. Its purpose is to establish whether there are grounds to arrest, and its result is not usually evidence of the offence itself.

At the police station

The evidential procedure takes place at the station, on an approved device. This is the reading the prosecution will rely on, and it is the stage at which most of the issues capable of affecting the outcome arise.

The procedure is prescriptive. The officer must follow it, must give you specific warnings, and in defined circumstances must offer you the option of replacing a breath specimen with blood or urine. Whether all of that happened correctly is a proper subject of scrutiny.

• You are entitled to free legal advice at the police station, at any hour
• That right applies before and during any interview
• Asking for a solicitor does not make you look guilty, and does not delay matters as much as people expect

Charge and bail

If you are charged, you will be given a charge sheet setting out the allegation and a date to attend the magistrates’ court. You are usually released on bail to that date.

Keep every document you are given. The charge sheet, the printout from the station device and any custody record all matter, and they are the first things a solicitor will ask to see.

Before the hearing

This is the stage where instructing a solicitor makes the greatest difference. The evidence can be requested and examined, the procedure at the station can be checked, and you can be advised properly on plea before you are asked to enter one.

It is much harder to undo a guilty plea entered at the first hearing than it is to take a short time to get advice first.

At court

Drink driving is heard in the magistrates’ court. If you plead not guilty, a trial date is set. If you plead guilty, or are convicted, the court moves to sentence.

On conviction the disqualification is a minimum of twelve months, and longer where the reading is high or there is a previous conviction within ten years. That is why the work done before the hearing matters so much.

Where there is still room to argue

Even where the offence itself is not in dispute, a special reasons argument can ask the court not to disqualify — for example where a drink was laced, where there was a genuine emergency, or where the distance driven was very short.

These arguments require evidence, and usually expert evidence. They are not put together on the morning of the hearing.