About to lose my licence

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Originally Posted by wardy1

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Now I’m prepared to cop what is coming to me, which will be a 6mth cancellation plus a fine. I’m not denying the charge. The reason for posting this is totally separate from this.

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First of all, I feel for 'ya.
While I don't symapthise(personally, I'm inherently biased against any drinking and driving!) I stil feel for 'ya in now facing the ensuing prospects.

As other's have said, try and get it to court and plead leniency based on a pretty good long record. I'm sure it'll help.

As a precaution, call all the possible debtors you may have(mortgage, utilities and so on) and tell them the situation, and explain you may be 6months out of work).
At the least apply for Newstart allowance .. the income it brings in is pitiful, but when you're in the system, and they allocate you to a half decent employment provider, they can easily find you a temp job role to help.

Guess how I know this ;)

Didn't lose my job due to license loss, but simply made redundant out of the blue(the only problem with being a subbie .. easy and swift loss of employment possibility).
Found a much better paying driving job about a month later tho .. so in the end it worked for the better(still a subbie tho).

But the first thing I did was to cal all my debtors and explain to them the situation .. and made provisions for potentially being out of work for 6 months.

Oh! .. and even if you do the Centrelink/Employment provider thing above .. also apply at various Employment agencies that specialise in your area(both geographical and industry.
While the Centrelink provided employment providers can be OK to assist you, many of them are totally useless, and only in it for the easy $s they get from the Govt!!!

As an example, I'm with an employment agency called APS. Very good people to work with.
They have very good contacts around the place to get you into temp job roles, and once in their system, you can easily migrate into a 'preferred' job role if you need too.

Is there any way you can get to work without a licence? Could you move closer to work? Do you need your licence for work? Can you travel with another driver? I don't remember these questions being answered previously, unless I missed it.

Applying for a work licence in Victoria states that:

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Work Driving Licences and Daytime Driving Licences
There has never been any such thing as a "work licence" or "day time licence" in Victoria. They have never existed under any circumstances or for any reason whatsoever. So you can never get one. Everyone who tells you they had one in Victoria is lying. They were actually driving while disqualified but were too shy to tell you the truth.

Conditional licence
There is no such thing as a conditional driver's licence in Victoria. You can never apply for one. You either have a drivers licence or you don't. If you have a driver's licence there is no point in asking a court to place restrictions on it. You should be asking the court not to interfere with it at all.

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Drink driving charges
If you are facing mandatory licence cancellation for drink driving, the courts have no power to let you drive a motor vehicle for any purpose whatsoever during your term of licence cancellation.
If you have been served with a s.51 Notice of Immediate licence suspension, it is possible to appeal against that suspension and for the court to take into account your exceptional circumstances to let you have your licence back pending the hearing of your charges.

Some people can plead guilty to drink driving and still keep their driver's licence. See the Drink Driving page which sets out the criteria when that can apply.

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links to:

Drink Driving Penalties in Victoria

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Licence Cancellation
The table below sets out the minimum periods of licence cancellation for all drivers found guilty of a drink driving offence in Victoria. There are no better alternatives except for those who plead not guilty and are acquitted. The only way to avoid licence loss for drink driving offences is to plead not guilty and be acquitted. The penalties for subsequent offences apply to people who have been found guilty or convicted of a drink driving or drug driving offence during the period of 10 years prior to the date of the current offence.

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A reading of 0.086 puts you into the category of Reading: 0.08% or more but less than 0.09
Loss of Licence, for first offence: 6 months as you said.

There is also a potential fine of 'up to' $3,000 (though very unlikely you'd get a large fine) which is obviously going to be excessively onerous in your situation, likely a lawyer could het that reduced to a minimum or nil.

Given the consequences to you that's pretty ****ed up, for sure and a MUCH bigger impact than would be the case for 99% of people.

WORTH TAKING TO A SPECIALIST LAWYER.

There may be some technicality they can get you acquitted under. That would be your only hope.

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Pleading Not Guilty to save your licence:
Every accused is entitled to plead not guilty. This does not mean the accused must prove they are innocent. The court already presumes that to be the case so an accused has absolutely nothing they need to prove. What it means is the police need to prove all facts and other matters necessary to support a finding of guilt. In most drink driving cases, the police case needs to be put to the test if you wish to avoid licence loss. All the accused needs to do is turn up to put the police case to the test. In mandatory licence loss cases, if you do not want to test the prosecution case and you have no defence of your own, there is almost no chance of avoiding licence loss. So if you want to avoid mandatory license loss you must go to court and in most cases you must plead not guilty.

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Well, 6 mths + $500. About what I expected.
To answer a couple of questions, I’m a sales consultant. I drive to peoples houses to go through property investment options. No way I can do that now. My work also involved a lot of interstate stuff with hire cars. Even if Vic DID have a work licence, I wouldn’t be able to use it to hire a car. In other words, my job is gone as of yesterday.
I got the feeling that the magistrate WOULD have changed things if he could. He agreed that the impact of a single error of judgement shouldn’t be as harsh as it could be for me.
Oh well, need to find something else. I don’t care what I do, long as I get paid enough to support myself

Well that's crap Alan, I bet if you said you had an ice problem it would have been a different outcome. Any room for an appeal ?

Nope

I am sorry Wardy1 I can't find anywhere in my heart to feel sorry for you Mate.

0.086 is a pretty high reading and you Must have been feeling the effects and your driving would undoubtedly have been impaired.

$500 and 6 months suspension (which I think is the minimum allowed) is a far better result than if you had injured/killed yourself or some innocent on the road.
As you say your job was dependant on holding your drivers licence then you shouldn't have taken any chances with it.
There is NO excuse these days for drink driving.
You say this is your first offence drink driving But is this the first time you have dank and drove or is it the first time you have been caught?

Sorry Mate but as the saying goes " Drink and drive and you are a Bloody Idiot"

He knows all that - we all know that - I dont think your post is helpful.

I think Mr Trout is only saying what most of us are thinking, if it was some one i didn't know i would just say do the crime do the time. There should be some kind of warning system for those that aren't repeat offenders and have an otherwise good driving record.
I have a desk job where there is a zero tolerance policy even thought legally elsewhere its .05 as stupid as it is, so i will lose my job for .001 yet i'm hardly a menace to society and the worst i can do is get a paper cut.

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Originally Posted by loanrangie

I have a desk job where there is a zero tolerance policy even thought legally elsewhere its .05 as stupid as it is, so i will lose my job for .001 yet i'm hardly a menace to society and the worst i can do is get a paper cut.

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Ditto.
We an be drug an alcohol tested at any time, without notice, on site. Subject to instant dismissal.