Drink Driving Arrest

[AVVA]

My husband was arrested at home for drink driving. He drank one pint of lager during the day and went out to drop some empty bottles at the local bottle bank then went to Tesco early evening. The woman who served him at Tesco smelled alcohol and called the police giving them his registration number. When my husband returned home, he drank 4 bottles of lager and a whiskey (we had guests around for dinner hence the alcohol intake). Approx 45 minutes later the police knocked on the door, gave him a breathaliser and arrested him. He was taken to the local police station and breathalised. Result was 49 miligrams. The police also took away the empty bottles and the bottle of whiskey. My husband was then put in a cell for 4 hours. The police returned to my house at approx 10.30 (husband arrested at 6.30) They took a statement then interviewed my husband. The statemant was the same as what my husband answered and he was released without any warnings etc. Is this legal.

[redcrx]

so he wasnt charged with anything?

[Grunty]

Before he arrived home, he must have committed a moving traffic offence or been involved in an accident or there must have been reasonable suspicion that he was over the limit. The police can arrest if they reasonably suspect that he was the driver in those circumstances. They seem to have taken the trouble to confirm what he said and released him when they found that there was no case against him. On the basis of what you have said, it all seems correct.

[AVVA]

Is it lawfull that you can be arrested for drinking at home - the police thought he was over the limit prior to getting home even though he wasn't. Surely it is wrong that you have a drink at home with guests having dinner?? Sorry if this sound trivial but his mum was buried on friday and this capped it all.

[NORMANTHEDOG]

he drank 4 pints of lager and a whiskey in 45 mins,sounds a bit dodgy to me,but if you have guests that will stand up in court and say that then he might get away with it.

[Barmaid]

The police clearly had a reasonable suspicion that he was driving under the influence of alcohol. They have done everything they should - arrested him, tested him and then sought evidence. Your evidence clearly bears out what he has said (together with the empty lager cans and whisky bottle) and that is reason he was released without charge. Your husband was clearly not charged because the police realised that with your evidence (which would have been corroborative of his interview together with countback analysis) would show that it was post driving consumption. Look at it the other way (and assume your husband wasn't innocent) woman at Tescos smells alcohol and reports it but the police do nothing, and later on he is involved in a fatal accident as a result of being over the limit............

[andrew123]

He wasnt charged so I cant see a problem.
I am quite amazed that the police bothered to do their job for once.

It may have come at a bad time for you, but putting this to one side, wasnt the process fair????

Drink-driving kills, so the few hours of yours and your husbands time lost to this are a small price to pay for getting the drinking scumbags off the roads.

Our police get lots of stick for not doing their jobs so take a deep breath and put pride to one side and then thanks yourself lucky that your police force in your town is doing your society a good turn!

Best of luck and sorry for your loss

[joko]

people don't tend to reek of booze after one can.

he must have been acting drunk at least.

i agree, that much in 45 minutes, guests or not is a bit suspicious.

what is the relevance of mentioning the bottle bank? and why go before the party?

[jake-the-peg]

Did they take a blood sample?

With a blood sample they can tell reasonably accurately when the alcohol was drunk by looking at the breakdown products in the blood sample.

It sounds to me as if either they did this and the result cleared him or they did not have the facility to do this test and so released him because they couldn't disprove his story.

Sounds like this might have been what they were up to during the 4 hours.

[AVVA]

Hi, Thanks for all of your interest. A blood test was taken and 2 breath tests at the station. The first was 49 the second was below the limit and dropping. He is not a drink driver and in answer to the above answers, we always use the bottle bank and we cleared all the empty bottles prior to our visitors arriving. The smell of alcohol on my husband was from the residue in the bottles. I must say that I do not blame anybody contacting the police in the first place as it is wrong to drink and drive but my problem is the way they treated my husband when they came to our home - in front of guests - then arrested because they did not beleive that he drank at home. The custody seargant who came on duty later after the arrest told the police to release him without charge. No fingerprints or DNA were taken and my husband was told that there was no evidence of him drink driving and was released.

Thank you again for your comments.

[dennilson]

The reason the Police seized the bottles and cans etc from your address was to negate what they call "Hip flask defence". This is when a drunk driver states he had been drinking but the amount of alcohol in his system was attributed to what he drank at home. They would back calculate the time span linked to his intox readings and could prosecute on that evidence. While he has blown 49 on the intox machine means he was within a whisker of being charged. If he was in Cheshire he would have been charged at 36. In Manchester 51 and so on and so on. Police have wide and sweeping powers which are constantly changing and it does sound as though they were within their rights. Probably a lucky escape

[AVVA]

Thanks Dennilson for your answer. One good thing is that I don't drink and always do the driving when out and about.

All of this was innocent on our side thank god