Join Wiseman Lawyers Traffic Lawyer Andrew Wiseman at Roma Magistrates Court as he represents a client charged with Drug Driving. Watch Andrew explain what happened in the courtroom, along with the outcome which he achieved and how he achieved it.
All right. Today I’m at [Ramer] Magistrates Court. Client was charged with repeat drug driving. There’s two types of drug driving. There’s what’s called under the influence of a drug meaning you’re high on drugs, and the other charge, which is the lesser of the two, drive loss relevant drug present. As I said, the higher charge means you’re high on drugs. That wasn’t the case today. Our client was charged with relevant drug present, meaning it’s been consumed at some point. The effects have worn off, but there’s still traces in his system. He was found to have methamphetamine ice in his system. It was a repeat offence. He’d been done previously in 2015, and I acted for him then.
Basically with repeat relevant drug present, if you’ve got one previous in the last five years, worst case is an 18-month loss of licence, manage minimum is three months.
So absolute best case today. It was a three-month disqualification. And because he’d previously lost his licence in the last five years with that prior relevant drug present charge, that made him ineligible to apply for a drug driving work licence. So to get a drug driving work licence, you can’t be under the influence of a drug. It’s got to be relevant drug present. Can’t have lost your licence for any reason in the last five years. And there’s a number of other prerequisites. But again, because he had that previous, he was not eligible to apply for a drug driving work licence. That meant my job was one of getting the disqualification down as low as possible. And as I said, maximum is 18 months, [inaudible] minimum is three months. I asked my client to complete a reformatory course, which could be done online. [inaudible]. Short version, it was successful. We persuaded the magistrate to give the management minimum of three months.
So my client got a minimum three-month disqualification and was fined. He’s obviously quite relieved. He will have to serve that three-month disqualification, get his licence back and then get him back on the road. Obviously that’s a hell of a lot better than the maximum amount of eighteen months of what he might have otherwise got if he wasn’t properly represented, or if he went there by himself. It’s a three-month disqualification, got his fine. Client is very happy. I’m Andrew Wiseman at Ramer Magistrates Court. Thanks for watching.