[2009] EWHC 3097 (Admin)

Where a driver charged with driving a motor vehicle with excess alcohol contrary to the Road Traffic Act 1988 s.5 ran the defence that he had consumed alcohol in the period between driving and giving a breath sample, and that it was that alcohol that had put him over the limit, the court had a discretion to find the statutory assumption in the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 s.15(2) discharged without the benefit of scientific evidence. However, it could only do so in the comparatively rare case where a layman could reliably and confidently say that the alcohol consumed after driving had to explain the excess alcohol in the sample.

DC (Elias LJ, Openshaw J)

30/10/2009