Recently our Penrith DUI Lawyers appeared on a complicated yet interesting matter involving 2 x charges of Novice Range Drink Driving and also an Offence of Disqualified Driving where we ultimately achieve a fantastic result for our client only receiving 4 months disqualification.
1st Charge: Special Range DUI for Provisional Driver
In this article I want to discuss with you a very complicated yet interesting matter we appeared on in the Penrith Local Court. This matter involved a young Provisional Driver who had found himself in quite a bit of trouble due to his carelessness and his disorganised approach to his initial Court proceedings. He came to us after he had been charged with a drink driving offense for the second time. To make this matter a little bit more complicated, he had initially been charged with a Special Range Drink Driving Offence and special range offences means that he was over the Zero Blood Alcohol Limit but under the 0.05 limit. But because he was a Provisional License holder, his limit was Zero (0.00). So he wasn’t allowed to drive with any presence of alcohol in his system.
Failure to Attend Court
He had been charged with this Special Range Drink Driving offence and unfortunately, he had lost the paperwork that was presented to him by Police when he was first arrested and charged for this 1st drink driving matter. Our client then failed to turn up to Court and appear at his 1st Drink Driving Court Appearance as he had no reference to the date that he was suppose to be in Court as he had lost all of his paperwork.
Subsequently, Court decided to deal with my clients matter in his absence and in the absence of any legal representation on his behalf. The Court decided to convict my client of the Special Range DUI Offence which basically saw him fined, disqualified for 6 months and convicted of the offence. Since he was completely unaware of his Court matter and the fact that he had been disqualified he continued to keep on driving his vehicle which ultimately caused a more serious and complex amount of troubles for him.
2nd & 3rd Charge: Special Range DUI & Disqualified Driving
Since our client was unaware of his license disqualification he continued to drive and early one morning he was on his way to work after consuming too many drinks the night before and he was pulled over for the purpose of a Stationary Random Breath Test. Unfortunately for him, he was over the limit of his Zero alcohol limit for that of a Provisional Driver.
This meant that he was again charged with Special Range Drink Driving for the 2nd time in only a matter of weeks.
But this was not where the bad news ended. Due to the fact that the Court had already disqualified his drivers license in his absence at Penrith Local Court it meant that the Police laid a subsequent charge of Disqualified Driving. So effectively he came to us with this 3 major Traffic Offences.
Preparing the Case
We sat down with our client and worked out a legal plan of attack which involved some calculated strategies in order to try and achieve the best outcome possible for our client. He was already convicted of a major traffic offence with the Special Range DUI that was dealt with in his absence and now presented with an additional 2 major traffic offences being the Special Range Drink Driving and the Disqualified Driving.
So our Penrith DUI Lawyers attended Court at the 1st Court mention for the latest 2 major traffic offences and successfully obtained an adjournment so that our client could go and complete the Traffic Offenders Program.
We were able to get together some good employment character references including a statement from his mother, a statement from his employer, and a statement from a family friend who could attest his otherwise very good character of a young man who was trying to work hard in life.
We also obtained a large amount of relevant information from our client so that we could address a number of issues relating to who he was and what has brought about this offending behaviour. This allowed us to prepare some carefully devised oral submissions that we could present to the Court.
Legal Strategy – Section 4 Annulment
In relation to the legal strategy, we decided to filed a separate Application in Court – called a Section 4 Annulment – which effectively Annul the conviction and disqualification that was issued by the Court in our clients absence for the 1st DUI offence that he was charged with.
This effectively gave our client a clean slate in which we were then able to appropriately address his offences and provide him with quality legal representation for all of his offences. The Section 4 Annulment was successful and granted since it became clear that our client’s 1st DUI offence was dealt with in his absence and he was not appropriately represented in Court.
We then moved to deal with all 3 offences of 2 counts of Special Range DUI and 1 count of Disqualified Driving at the one time. Since the initial DUI conviction was removed under the section 4 annulment this meant that our Court was dealing with our client as a 1st time offender in relation to his 3 major traffic offences because his prior conviction had been removed and therefore he was not considered – by law – to be a repeat offender. As this was the case this meant that his period of disqualification for his 2 DUI were effectively half of that of a repeat or 2nd offender.
Section 10 for the Disqualified Driving Charge
We then proceeded to deal with the disqualified driving offence and explained to the Court that if our client had of been made aware of the fact that his license was disqualified by the Court following the conviction of his 1st DUI offence that was dealt with by Court in his absence then my client would not have driven his motor vehicle. However, due to the fact he was completely oblivious to the fact his license was disqualified this meant that he continued to drive not thinking he was doing anything wrong or breaking the law.
Ultimately, I applied for the Court to deal with the Disqualified Driving Offence under Section 10 which effectively meant a plea of Guilty to the offence was accepted yet the Court has the discretion not to Convict or disqualify our client for the offence. We were very happy that the Court saw reason and decided to deal with the Disqualified Driving offence under section 10 because if he was convicted that would have meant that he would have faced a mandatory minimum of 2 years disqualification off the road and a hefty fine.
Convincing the Court to grant a Section 10 No Conviction was a huge win for our client.
2 x Special Range DUI Charges
In relation to the 2 drink driving offences of special range drink driving, they were dealt with by the Court as though they were a 1st offence since his prior conviction had been annulled under the Section 4 Application which was granted. The thing that we were able to persuade the Magistrate to do was to reduce the period of time that our client received for each of these offences.
So for the 1st special range drink driving offence, my client received a 3 month disqualification and a $200 fine which was reduced down from the automatic period of 6 months.
For the 2nd special range drink driving offence he received a 4 month disqualification and $300 fine.
Now, these 3 months and 4 months disqualification periods that were handed down by the Penrith Local Court Magistrate were to be run concurrently from the day of the Court Sentencing appearance. We persuaded the Magistrate to run these 2 period of disqualification at the same time, concurrently. So basically, the reality being that in 4 months time from the date that those orders were made in Court, he was able to go back and apply to court to have his license reinstated to him.
A fantastic result for our client in what was initially a complete disaster of a situation for him where he was potentially facing years off the road. Due to the hard work from our Penrith DUI Lawyers we were able to avert a disastrous situation for our client.
Summary of the Disaster we had to deal with
At one point in time, he’s facing at least two years disqualification off the road. We were able to put strategic plans in place where we were able to get his first drink driving offence annulled. We’re able to have his disqualified driving offence dealt with under section 10. And we’re able to combine his two drink driving offences together. So in effect, he only have to serve four months disqualification and this is for a provisional driver, a young fellow who certainly learned some very major and big lessons in relation to not only drive the safety and how alcohol affects the body, but also in relation to just general life organization. If you’ve got something hanging over your head, you need to be proactive. You need to jump on the front board and deal with that. And certainly, not turning out to Court for his first drink driving offences are a major list and that he has now learned.
Contact Penrith DUI Lawyers Sydney
So that was the matter which we appeared on at the Penrith Courthouse in Western Sydney.
If you have been charged with a serious traffic offence then rest assure we are experts in traffic and DUI law in Sydney and New South Wales.
It is not a problem for us to attend and appear at any Courthouse in New South Wales or Queensland for that matter. If you have got any questions or you have got a similar case, please don’t hesitate to give me a call 1300 941 900 or go onto our website, which is BoormanLawyers.com.au
Speak to our Penrith DUI Lawyers in Sydney Ph: 1300 941 900
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