Drink Driving Scotland, Mistake 3 - 3 Assuming the Breat Analysis Machine is Infallible
Even the Space Shuttle wasn’t infallible. My motto tends to be “Don’t trust technology”-I can’t think of a machine that hasn’t broken down sometime! All the defence require to do is show the Sheriff that there is room for a “reasonable doubt” regarding the reliability of the machine and your licence is saved.
Laymen and even lawyers are sometimes guilty of failing to read the piece of legislation that the case relates too. The law in relation to drink driving cases, of course requires to be fully understood however all the statutes and the regulations governing the use of technical equipment requires to be read and understood. The lawyer needs to know what is and what is not admissible evidence-This is not always easy and again experience tends to be the key to success.
Those that don’t know the laws and regulations don’t realise that violations of the rules introduce into evidence matters that can be suppressed from the trial on the grounds of fairness to the accused.
Since the intoximeter devices are “type approved” there is now a statutory presumption that they are reliable and that they work properly. Therefore to defend such a case you need to get copies of the various logs, maintenance records, printout of sample taken etc. This is not easy as the Crown will refuse to provide these documents if they consider that this is a “Fishing expedition” where the defence are just looking for some kind of get out!
My own view is that we should be entitled to obtain all such documents, even if it were a so called “fishing expedition” since this is how we the public have any chance of establishing that the correct procedures and proper working equipment has been used. Sadly, it has been known for lawyers and unrepresented parties to just have the complaint and the arrest report, this again emphasises the need for an experienced solicitor for drink driving in Scotland be instructed from the outset.
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