Lambert v Roberts: QBD 1981

Police officers came into a garden to obtain a breath test. There had been repeated statements by the owner of the premises that the officers, who were on the driveway of his house, were on private property and that he believed the police had no right to administer a breath test in those circumstances.
Held: The officers came onto the garden by virtue of an implied licence, but (Donaldson LJ) ‘. . . it is a licence which is revocable without prior notice. In the present case the justices have found that the defendant’s statement that he was on private property and that the police officers were trespassing was such a notice. I am quite unable to say that this was wrong, although an alternative view of the defendant’s conduct, taken as a whole, is that he was simply disputing the right of the police officers to require a breath test on private property but was not effectively revoking their licence.’

Citations:

[1981] 72 Cr App R 223

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

CitedWayne Fullard, Ryan Roalfe, Regina (on the Application Of) v Woking Magistrates’ Court Admn 16-Nov-2005
The defendants challenged convictions for assaulting police officers acting in the course of their duty. They said the officers were not so acting. The first defendant had been stopped in a vehicle which had left the scene of an accident. At the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Police

Updated: 01 May 2022; Ref: scu.241689