A mid-range drink driving violation does not allow the police to spot fine you or give a penalty notice.
Your licence will be suspended immediately and you will have to wait for court charges. If your case has reached this level, it’s advisable to engage lawyers because the consequences of a conviction are severe. If the Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC), measured against the Prescribed Concentration of Alcohol (PCA) limits scale is between 0.08 and 0.149, that is a case of mid-range drink driving offence. In routine road traffic rules enforcement, the police conduct impromptu drink driving road tests. Before a BAC test you will take a roadside breath test, where you speak to a gadget that tests the presence of alcohol in your breath. If the results are positive, you will be asked to blow into an alcohol detector tube. Again if the results are high and positive you may be arrested to undergo a detailed PCA test and blood analysis. If the mid-range PCA reading is between 0.08 and 0.149, this will form the ground to charge you for violating the traffic act.
Mid-range drink driving is prosecuted under criminal law. It comes with negative consequences to your driving record if convicted. The law provides various drink driving penalties you should be aware of for first and second or subsequent offence situations. For first-time traffic offences, the fine is $ 2,200, a 9 months imprisonment, 12 months disqualification without interlock or an interlock of 6 months and the possibility of reduction to 3 months. For a second or subsequent offence, a fine of $3,300 is imposed, a 12 months prison term, 3-year licence disqualification and a 24 months interlock condition. The interlock can be reduced to 9 months or 6 months minimum disqualification, with a 6 months prison term. An interlock court order requires you to fit the vehicle with an interlock device and undergo an interlock program depending on the gravity of the case. Failure to adhere to an interlock order can lead to a 5 year disqualification. For the first offence, the local court may give way to Section 10 dismissal. It is also known as conditional release order. If allowed by the court, the driver is not convicted, no criminal record is entered in their social records file, no fine is required neither is a disqualification from driving imposed.
Mid-range drink driving is a criminal offence. If found guilty, you will get a criminal conviction. The conviction will be entered into your personal conducts records. Due to the nature of this offence, and the risk it poses at large, most court cases end with a conviction. This is more so in second or subsequent offence cases. A release without conviction is possible. Bear in mind that a lot of proof is needed.
To avoid a guilty verdict, a driver can plead for a conditional release order. Where granted, it quashes the conviction. Consequently, it stops the recording of criminal data in personal records. The driver is spared disqualification and avoids the fine too.
Conditional release is possible in several circumstances. First, it is a possible remedy for the first offence. Courts also extended it to one who has not been convicted of a similar matter in the past 5 years since the first offence or last charge. The court, however, may require the person in question to complete a traffic offender’s program.
To support a no conviction court plea there are other arguments that you or your lawyer, may submit. For instance, if the alcohol test was conducted at your property, the court may overrule the prosecution. Also, if the PCA test was taken 2 hours after the breath analysis window, the lawyers can argue that the PAC result is invalid. If you are found guilty of mid-range drink driving while working professionally, you may also face duty of care charges.It is scientifically evident that alcohol affects driving capabilities. It significantly impairs vision, lowers alertness and reduces reaction times which increases the probability of road accidents. The impairment effects increase with the amount consumed. To enforce the law against drink driving, the police officer administers tests to estimate the quantity of alcohol in the blood. The PCA test results are an indicator of whether you are within or have exceeded the alcohol limit. This alcohol measurement practice is what’s generally referred to as the prescribed concentration of alcohol, in short, PCA. You will be charged either under novice, special, low, middle or high range, depending on your PCA reading. The severity of a penalty will follow the PCA category violation. In general, the law outlines PCA limits based on a driver licence. If the BAC is in the mid-range or high-range, the police can institute an automatic disqualification. For novice drivers, a mid-range offence leads to an immediate licence suspension. The automatic disqualification is followed in court by a drink driving charge.
The severity of the drink driving charge will depend on the results the PAC measure returns for each individual test. The charges and penalties for each PAC category vary across Australian states, but the principle guidelines and interpretations are the same. In the state of New South Wales (NSW), the drink driving offences outlined in the Road Transport Act 2013 fall into 5 main categories. These categories are novice, special, low, mid-range and high. The novice range PCA is a reading between 0.00 and 0.019. The special range PCA is between 0.02 and 0.049. A low range reading is between 0.05 and 0.079. A middle range PCA is in the scale of 0.08 and 0.149. The high range PCA reading is 0.15 and above. In NSW, the applicable fines for each range, penalties, suspensions and disqualifications increase as the PCA limit violation increases. Additionally, the court order after your hearing will depend on whether it is your first offence or your second or subsequent offence. It will also depend on the number of times you have previously been found guilty. Finally, it will depend on the last time you had a similar charge within five years.