A driver was arrested for driving with excess alcohol. At the police station, he was to be tested with the Lion Intoximeter. The officer tested the machine and it calibrated correctly. This was at about a quarter after midnight; the sergeant’s watch said 00.13 am, but the time display on the machine read 23:00. Part … Continue reading Director of Public Prosecutions v McKeown and Jones: HL 20 Feb 1997
Where a motorist told an officer at the roadside that he suffered from bronchitis, and could not provide a specimen of breath, and he wanted to rely upon the same reason at the police station, he could not claim that the officer in the station should know of his objection, but should make it clear … Continue reading Director of Public Prosecutions v Lonsdale: QBD 16 Feb 2001
The Crown Court had concluded that the intoximeter EC/IR was not a validly approved device or if it was that it was unreasonable for the Secretary of State to have approved it since it was a device which detected mouth alcohol, i.e. was liable to give a false reading by failing to distinguish mouth alcohol … Continue reading Director of Public Prosecutions v Memery: QBD 4 Jul 2002
The defendant gave two specimens of breath, but they differed so markedly that the officer considered them unreliable. He offered the defendant the choice of a further two attempts or to give a specimen of blood or urine. He was convicted on the second set of breath tests. He appealed, saying he should not have … Continue reading John Kimball Stewart v Director of Public Prosecutions: Admn 2 Jun 2003
The motorist was to be asked to take a breath test at the police station. The defendant was asked if he was on medication, and he produced a pill. The officer went ahead wit the test. At court the defendant said that he should first have sought medical advice to see whether he was fit … Continue reading Steadman v Director of Public Prosecutions: QBD 15 Apr 2002
The claimants sought damages for personal injuries after a crash in a Land Rover maintained by the defendants. The defendants appealed findings of negligence in failing properly to inflate the rear tyres, in continuing despite the danger, and poor overtaking. A further fault was identified in that dirt in the front wheel had led to … Continue reading Exel Logistics Ltd v Curran and others: CA 30 Sep 2004
The defendant appealed against his conviction for driving with excess alcohol. He said that the machine used to measure the alcohol in his breath did not have type approval. The schedule to Approval 1998 for the purposes of section 7(1)(a) of the Road Traffic Act referred to ‘the device known as the Intoximeter EC/IR manufactured … Continue reading Brown v Procurator Fiscal, Falkirk: HCJ 24 Sep 2002
The defendant appealed his conviction for driving with excess alcohol, arguing that the prosecution had failed to provide the roadside breath test figures. Held: The appeal failed, and was indeed hopeless. Pill LJ said: ‘The specimens of breath which established whether or not a defendant has committed an offence under section 5(1) of the 1988 … Continue reading Smith v Director of Public Prosecutions: Admn 30 Jan 2007
The claimant, displaced from the Chagos Archipelago, challenged a decision by the respondent to create a no-take Marine Protected Area arround the island which would make life there impossible if he and others returned. The respondent renewed his objection to the use of leaked materials, saying that this would be a breach of the Official … Continue reading Bancoult, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs: Admn 11 Jun 2013
