drink-driving

jparicka

Hi,

A friend of mine (yes, a friend of mine – not me) got caught drink-driving. The problem is that he has never held a driving license or car insurance. Now he’s ordered to go to court. Any idea what expect?

Thanks for your opinion folks,

Jan

py2006

Hopefully the idiot will be banned for 10 years!

Dreamer 7

I knew someone like this, I say knew because he is now languishing in Mountjoy on a 3 year stretch.

He will def have a large fine, a ban and possible jail term depending on his history, oh and car insurance co. will not touch him with a barge pole

Orlee

py2006 wrote:

Hopefully the idiot will be banned for 10 years!

concur, although a life ban wouldn't be a bad idea

neacy69

Well he deserves to get sent down for 3/5 years but more than likely he will get banned for 2 years fined about €2000 then get indivdual fines of about €500/1000 each for no licence, insurance...

jparicka

py2006 wrote:

Hopefully the idiot will be banned for 10 years!

To be quite honest, I hope so as well. The question is what is the point of banning him from driving if he’s not permit to drive in a first place?

He has not done it for a first time and driving ban won’t stop him to do it again. He’s a reckless idiot.

*a*

he should and will get jail time - I have no sympathy for him. What the hell was he thinking:
a) not have a licence, sit the theory test and get a provisional!
b) no insurance, whose car was it?
c) drink driving - he could have killed someone.......he deserves a few years in jail for that!

Defo jail time, a few fines and hopefully that will wake him up to the fact that there are laws for a reason!

Sorry feel very stongly on this point as a family member rightly went to jail for drinking driving and killing a poor young lad. No sympathy at all for your mate - get new friends!

Trampas

Jail and some punishment for the person who gave him the keys also

jparicka

*a* wrote:

he should and will get jail time - I have no sympathy for him. What the hell was he thinking:
a) not have a licence, sit the theory test and get a provisional!
b) no insurance, whose car was it?
c) drink driving - he could have killed someone.......he deserves a few years in jail for that!

Defo jail time, a few fines and hopefully that will wake him up to the fact that there are laws for a reason!

Sorry feel very stongly on this point as a family member rightly went to jail for drinking driving and killing a poor young lad. No sympathy at all for your mate - get new friends!

I 100pc agree with you. He's ordered to go to court on Sept the 3rd. I'll let you guys know what the sentence was..

Thanks for your opinions.

PS - He's not a friend, more like someone that I got to know..

Jan

BeardyGit

Yep, hope he gets sent down for it.....

If I were you and assuming he 'gets away with it' this time, I'd rat him up every time you know he's behind the wheel - Tip off the Gardaí and let them crease him for it....Eventually he'll get the jailtime he deserves.

Gil

Randomswinger

Gil_Dub wrote:

Yep, hope he gets sent down for it.....

If I were you and assuming he 'gets away with it' this time, I'd rat him up every time you know he's behind the wheel - Tip off the Gardaí and let them crease him for it....Eventually he'll get the jailtime he deserves.

Gil

If he's lucky enough not to get time this is the way to do it!

jparicka

Randomswinger wrote:

If he's lucky enough not to get time this is the way to do it!

I surely will.

dats_right

I am a trainee solicitor with dare I say more experience than some of the previous posters in this area. Anyway, without knowing the full facts and background of this case (eg. previous convictions, etc.) it is difficult to give full advice, however, it is imperative that your friend contact a solicitor as soon as possible. As the implications of a conviction are enormous and will certianly include a driving ban, a fine and an endorsement. But, in the circumstances, you could not necessarily rule out a suspended or even a custodial sentence.

ismynametoolong

Has he got his results back from the lab and did he fail the blood or urine test.
It is my understanding that of the hundreds you hear about been arrested for drink driving every weekend quite a large percentage actually pass the blood or urine test and dont end up been prosecuted so maybe he will only get done for no licence and insurance but if he was sozzled then he deserves the full rigours of the law.

jparicka

dat_right, ismynametoolong,

All I know / have seen is a summons to court and a police note. The note says that he has been driving with so much alcohol in his system that 3 hrs later it was still exceeding 35 milligrams per 100ml of breath. This gives me the impression he was breathalysed and had no blood or urine samples taken.

There was no mention about his driving license (he hasn’t got one) or car insurance (he hasn’t got one either) but I presume he’ll be asked to present it.

As for the previous convictions, since he is an immigrant, he hasn’t got any.

Jan

Henry Ford III

It's hard to have any sympathy. What he did was plain stupid.

Stephen

What an arsehole. I have zero sympathy. People like him make motoring both more dangerous and expensive for those of us that do it by the book.

jparicka

Stephen wrote:

What an arsehole. I have zero sympathy. People like him make motoring both more dangerous and expensive for those of us that do it by the book.

Please don’t take me wrong, I have no sympathy for him either. I’m just curios whether he’s gonna get stopped or we need to wait until he actually kill someone. I have not ever seen him driving sober, though..

Stephen

No idea, I don't know enough about the legal system to say. I think one of the posters above was right in saying you should report the bollix every time he gets into a car pissed. I imagine a few repeat drink driving convictions, plus the lack of tax/insurance/licence really would not endear him to any sane judge!

Marcus.Aurelius

Where is he from? A lot of judges are quite harsh on immigrants misbehaving.

Fey!

It'll depend on the judge on the day.

The flip side to this is that the owner of the car could, and in my opinion should, end up in trouble for giving their car to a drunk, unlicensed, uninsured idiot.

jparicka

maoleary wrote:

Where is he from? A lot of judges are quite harsh on immigrants misbehaving.

Czech-o-slovakia, more precisely, he's Slovak but can't speak any English whatsoever.. ;-( Do you think that this may also have a negative impact?

Jan

Jo King

If there is no mention of licence and insurance and he is only summonsed for the drink driving offence and he has no previous convictions then he will get a fine and a ban. If the owner of the car had insurance and he avails of the defence mentioned in another thread he may escape the insurance charge. Driving without a licence will only result in a fine.

jhegarty

Fey! wrote:

The flip side to this is that the owner of the car could, and in my opinion should, end up in trouble for giving their car to a drunk, unlicensed, uninsured idiot.

What could the owner be charged with ?

BeardyGit

jparicka wrote:

Czech-o-slovakia, more precisely, he's Slovak but can't speak any English whatsoever.. ;-( Do you think that this may also have a negative impact?

Jan

He's cooked. The courts are absolutely hammering eastern europeans for this type of offence according to a buddy of mine who does the blood/urine sample analysis for court prosecutions. He says it's impressive just how hard the judges are ruling - They really are out to root this sort of thing out.

Your pal's going to be made an example of I suspect. :eek:

MAYPOP

jparicka wrote:

I have not ever seen him driving sober, though..

it might sound patronising but couldn't you have taken the initiative and perhaps reported him, since it seems like you've witnessed this several times?...it's just lucky that he hasn't killed someone (that we know about at least)

Gatster

he's Slovak but can't speak any English whatsoever.. ;-( Do you think that this may also have a negative impact?

Yes, I'd imagine it will have a negative impact. Deport him, and at least bang-up the owner of the car. I'm sure this as a statement will enrage PC types, but it ensures no repeat offences here.

bazz26

Maybe sharing a cell with someone called Buba and being his bitch for 12 months might give him a new outlook on life.

pred racer

Gil_Dub wrote:

He's cooked. The courts are absolutely hammering eastern europeans for this type of offence according to a buddy of mine who does the blood/urine sample analysis for court prosecutions. He says it's impressive just how hard the judges are ruling - They really are out to root this sort of thing out.

Your pal's going to be made an example of I suspect. :eek:

Yep....Mary Martin FTW;)

jparicka

Fey! wrote:

It'll depend on the judge on the day.

The flip side to this is that the owner of the car could, and in my opinion should, end up in trouble for giving their car to a drunk, unlicensed, uninsured idiot.

I've asked him about who owns the car and apparently it's him. He bought it but didn’t bother to register it in his name. Told you he's an idiot.

Well, .. I surely hope he'll be sent down.

jparicka

Jo King wrote:

If there is no mention of licence and insurance and he is only summonsed for the drink driving offence and he has no previous convictions then he will get a fine and a ban. If the owner of the car had insurance and he avails of the defence mentioned in another thread he may escape the insurance charge. Driving without a licence will only result in a fine.

Right, allow me a quick recap:

He bought a car quite a while ago (4 months!) from some Polish guy but didn’t bother to register it in his name. Meaning that there’s some poor Polish fella having no idea that his car is resting at the police station waiting for him to come and pick it up in return for a hefty fine.

As for the actual offence, he got caught drink-driving with so much alcohol in his system that 3 hours after he got caught, it was still exceeding 35 milligrams per 100 milliliters of breath.

What the police might not know (since he cannot speak any English) is that he’s not permitted to drive – he never had a driving license of any sort. There’s no insurance on the car.


He’s about 25, Slovak citizen and notorious drink-driving offender. I’m saying this because recently I’ve learned that he’s done for drink-driving in Slovakia. He got caught before he got his license issued and ended up with 5 years driving ban.

His driving ban has expired some time ago but since he moved to Ireland, he has never signed up for a test.

I have personally seen him few times drink-****ing-racing but since he’s a braindead idiot, I didn’t want to get involved…


Cheers,

Jan

Mitch Connor

well, i hope the courts find out all this information and come down very very very very hard on him.

TychoCaine

OP,

I think you should have a word with your local friendly garda and tell him that a) he's been done for this back home (and I'd doubt you get 5 years for a first offence either), and b) that he's at it regularly over here too. Unless you live in a small town, the gardai are unlikely to know the drink-driving habits of everyone, and they may not get in contact with the Slovak police either, so it could get overlooked if you don't.

You should have reported this sooner though. I don't care about what people do to themselves that risks their own life, but anyone, Irish or not, disserves to be locked up for putting other people's lives at risk on the roads. :mad:

Everyone knows that two pints puts you over the limit. I don't consider driving to the pub as it's not worth going out just for a single pint. It's not that hard to walk, taxi or use a designated driver to get there and back.

p.s. buy my car!

jparicka

TychoCaine wrote:

OP,

I think you should have a word with your local friendly garda and tell him that a) he's been done for this back home (and I'd doubt you get 5 years for a first offence either), and b) that he's at it regularly over here too. Unless you live in a small town, the gardai are unlikely to know the drink-driving habits of everyone, and they may not get in contact with the Slovak police either, so it could get overlooked if you don't.

You should have reported this sooner though. I don't care about what people do to themselves that risks their own life, but anyone, Irish or not, disserves to be locked up for putting other people's lives at risk on the roads. :mad:

Everyone knows that two pints puts you over the limit. I don't consider driving to the pub as it's not worth going out just for a single pint. It's not that hard to walk, taxi or use a designated driver to get there and back.

p.s. buy my car!

I’m based in Galway City and so is he. I’m not sure how much difference would it make to tip off the police since they have already passed this over to the judge.

Thanks for the generous offer but I have my own car:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jparicka/ZdendoRossieAndMeInIreland2007/photo#5046558523175036354

;oP

Jan

layke

If he was caught before the new legislation he will be banned from the roads for 1 year (he may appeal after 6 months). If it's the new legislation and I expect it is he will be banned for 2 years (he may appeal after 1 year).

He may also face a fine which could be 0 to (name your figure).

jparicka

This is all great. Why don’t we all happy drink and drive then? And why bother with insurance?

Layke, I think he'll walk out with more serious consequences than being off roads for a year or so...

Jan

layke wrote:

If he was caught before the new legislation he will be banned from the roads for 1 year (he may appeal after 6 months). If it's the new legislation and I expect it is he will be banned for 2 years (he may appeal after 1 year).

He may also face a fine which could be 0 to (name your figure).

oleras

jparicka wrote:

I’m based in Galway City and so is he. I’m not sure how much difference would it make to tip off the police since they have already passed this over to the judge.

Thanks for the generous offer but I have my own car:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jparicka/ZdendoRossieAndMeInIreland2007/photo#5046558523175036354

;oP

Jan

Going by your pic abum you have that car since last year, you gon register it in ireland since you live here now ?

oleras

TychoCaine wrote:

Everyone knows that two pints puts you over the limit.

Wrong..............2 pints would have different effects on different people, might put a 6 stone 18 year old girl over, but i doubt it would put a 16 stone seasoned drinker over the limit. Its not an exact science, and our acceptable levels are nearly twice as high as other countries as it is.

TychoCaine

Until it's an "exact science" I won't take the chance if you don't mind. I've been drinking for 16+ years and I know how a couple of pints affects my balance, attention span and reaction times. I would not be as good a driver as if I was totally sober, even though I may be under the limit.

jparicka

oleras wrote:

Going by your pic abum you have that car since last year, you gon register it in ireland since you live here now ?

Sush.

;oP

Jan

TychoCaine

Sush? B0llix! It's not funny. You're an Irish resident driving on Irish roads, so you've got to obey Irish laws, so unless you're only in Ireland for less than 6 months on a temporary contract, you've got to get Irish plates on the car, and pay VRT, insurance and tax like the rest of us. :mad:

jparicka

TychoCaine wrote:

Sush? B0llix! It's not funny. You're an Irish resident driving on Irish roads, so you've got to obey Irish laws, so unless you're only in Ireland for less than 6 months on a temporary contract, you've got to get Irish plates on the car, and pay VRT, insurance and tax like the rest of us. :mad:

I'm over in Ireland on a fixed term 6 months contract. I'm going to be heading back to England in a month and two weeks. If I always had to change plates when I was somewhere on a business, I'd have quite a collection by now!

Not to mention that I do have an insurance, MOT and UK road tax paid.

Jan