Case report: OM
OM contacted us after being charged with drink driving. He explained that he had been arrested some months before and was given a notice informing him that no further action would be taken against him. He had relied on that notice to take a new job that required him to drive and had bought a car that he was committed to paying finance on.
Avoiding a driving disqualification was OM’s objective in contacting us.
We obtained the prosecution evidence, reviewed it and took instructions from OM. We identified two potential avenues for defence. First, that OM reported the police had not given him the statutory warning that he could be prosecuted if he failed to provide the breath specimens, and secondly that the proceedings should be stayed as an abuse of process due to the previous decision to take no further action against OM. We further advised that if OM were to be convicted, he should argue that there were two special reasons that would allow the court to avoid disqualifying him from driving. First, the fact he had acted to his detriment following the long delay between the decision not to prosecute him and the Crown’s change of mind, secondly, there was evidence that OM had only driven because the police officers had directed him to do so!
Nick Diable represented OM at his first court hearing where he set out the defence position to both the court and prosecution. Subsequently, Nick followed up with a written skeleton argument setting out both why the defence said the case should be stayed as am abuse of process and, in the alternative, why the case should prevent OM being disqualified from driving.
Shortly after receiving the skeleton argument, the Crown responded by discontinuing the proceedings against OM.
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