If you’re convicted of failing to provide a specimen without reasonable excuse, your sentence will be decided by the court after reviewing the circumstances in your case.
If convicted, you’ll be disqualified from driving. You’ll also be fined, given a community order, or a prison sentence. The more serious your offence, the more severe your sentence will be.
If you’ve been convicted of a drink driving or alcohol-related offence in the past 10 years, you’ll face a ban from driving for at least three years.
If you failed to provide a specimen to the police, you’ll need to prove you had a reasonable excuse. Excuses that could be considered reasonable include:
- Severe panic attack
- Having a chronic breathing condition, such as asthma
- A medically proven physical or mental incapacity
- Being unable to understand the requirement, such as not speaking English
- Needle phobias.
It’s important to note that there’s no definitive list of “reasonable excuses”, so we strongly advise you to contact us to discuss your case.
If your doctor can confirm you have a medical condition that’d stop you from being able to provide a specimen, you’ll be acquitted.
When you fail to provide a specimen, your conviction stays on your driving licence for 11 years from the date you were convicted.
We’ll work to get the best outcome for you, whichever way you choose to plead. If you plead Guilty, we’ll use our legal expertise to get you the most lenient sentence possible.
If you decide to fight the charge, we’ll prepare your defence and work to achieve an acquittal.
If there’s a medical reason for why you couldn’t provide a specimen, we’ll look to use a medical expert to help support your case.
If you were asked to provide a breath specimen, we may be able to prove the breathalyser wasn’t working properly. Some clients are adamant that they blew into the machine as instructed by the police, but the machine wasn’t registering their breath. In these instances, the police may still decide you failed to provide a specimen, but we can seek to prove that they were wrong to do this in court.
In these cases, we’ll review CCTV footage from the police station and request the records for the machine. We’ll work with experts to see if your blows would have registered a reading with the machine. This can help to prove the machine wasn’t working as it should have been, which can lead to your acquittal.
It’s generally considered to be settled law that providing a specimen can’t be delayed for the sake of getting legal advice. However, if access to legal advice was immediately available, and a consultation wouldn’t cause delay, a court may agree that you should’ve been allowed to speak to a legal expert.
This is a rare event, but if agreed by the court, it would be a breach of Section 58 Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE). This could result in the exclusion of the evidence of you failing to provide a sample. This means the Prosecution wouldn’t be able to prove their case against you.
You can find out more about how we can help you by getting in touch with us.
Our expert team of lawyers have decades of experience in securing the best results for clients charged with failing to provide a specimen. We’ve the knowledge, experience, and relationships to give you the strongest defence possible.
Whichever way you choose to plead, we’ll support you. We’ll give you tailored legal advice based on your individual circumstances and give you fearless representation in court.
We’ll collect as much information about your case as possible, both from you, the police, and the Crown Prosecution Service. We can then advise you on your options and if you have a defence.
Our offices are located all around the country, meaning you can access expert help that’s local to you. We’ll work in the way you instruct us, cutting out legal jargon and giving you advice that’s easy to understand and best suited to your case.
Contact us today to talk about your situation.
