Spiked Drinks Solicitors Win Case
Our spiked drinks solicitors recently acted for a gentleman who was convinced his drinks had been spiked. He was certain that he had not consumed enough alcohol to have been over the legal limit. Absolutely certain – there was no doubt in his mind.
In fact as he was leaving the pub one of the other customers was discussing the fact that there seemed to be a lot of police in the area. Our client wasn’t worried though – he knew what he’d had to drink. He knew that he’d had less than 2 pints – probably closer to 1 ½ pints over the course of a couple of hours.
He was stopped just minutes down the road – he failed the roadside breathtest. He then failed the test at the station and was charged with drink driving.
He could not understand how this was possible – he simply had not drunk enough for this to be possible.
Except it was.
The majority of laced drinks cases are not malicious – we often get cases where someone has asked for a single vodka and coke and been given a double as a treat from a friend – especially at this time of year when everyone is celebrating. Or someone arrives late to the Christmas party so shots are added to his drink to help them ‘catch up’. No malicious intent is involved – the ‘spiker’ is unaware that the drinker is driving and simply wants everyone to have a good time.
In these cases the ‘spiker’ usually comes forward to apologise after the friend is arrested and gives evidence to the court of their actions. Whilst not a defence to the offence of Drink Driving it is what is called Special Reasons – which effectively means that though you are technically guilty of Drink Driving (because you were over the legal limit) the courts can exercise their discretion to not impose a penalty – and not disqualify you from driving.
James’s case was different. He came out of the station to a dozen missed calls from friends in the pub. It seemed that after he left it had been discovered that a guy in the pub who James had previously had an argument with had spiked his drinks and then called the police intending to get him in trouble. He had been laughing about it after James left. James’s friends had been ringing him to warn him – unfortunately too late.
The law does allow for the prosecution of ‘spikers’ but I can honestly say I have never had a case where any action has been taken – because in the majority of cases there was never an intent to cause an offence. This case was different – this was a deliberate act intended to cause the committal of a criminal offence. We knew we were not going to be able to put the spiker on the stand – he was never going to incriminate himself so we needed to persuade the courts in a different way.
We took statements from our client and his wife to support what he had had to drink. We arranged for an expert Forensic Scientist to give evidence to the court about our clients alcohol levels had he only consumed what he believed he had drunk. We took statements from those in the pub who heard the rumours and rang James to warn him.
We built a case to support James’s assertion that he had not knowingly or deliberately consumed sufficient alcohol to put him over the drink drive limit.
If you are charged with a Drink Driving offence and you believe that you did not consume enough to be over the limit then give Forrest Williams a call on 01623 397200. Our spiked drinks solicitors are ready to help.
