Common questions immediately following a drink drive arrest

If you’ve just been arrested for drink driving, it can be an incredibly stressful experience. No doubt you will be thinking about how this will affect you and what the future holds. The most common concern for people in this situation is how it could affect their job and whether they need to have the dreaded conversation with their boss sooner rather than later.

Most suspects arrested for drink driving are released following arrest and face the following next steps:

Charged with drink driving – In this scenario the police have decided to prosecute you for the offence and you will have been released on bail (conditional or unconditional) to attend a Magistrates’ Court. You will have a bail notice and charge sheet to hand. Most court dates are scheduled within weeks of a charge date.

Released Pending Further Investigation – In some cases, especially when there has been an accident or a blood or urine test was obtained rather than a breath test, you may have been released without charge but pending further investigation. This scenario allows the police to continue their investigations before a charging decision is made.

The most common scenarios where this will happen is where a blood or urine sample is sent off for analysis and they have to wait for the result for charging. In other cases this may be when the police do not have sufficient evidence to charge and so they want to collate further evidence (for example where there were no eye witnesses to driving they may wish to obtain statements or CCTV footage to plug the gap). Once the investigation is concluded, you will either not be charged and no further action will be taken or you will receive a charge through the post stipulating that you will have to attend court.

It is possible that you will be contacted by the police to attend a “voluntary” interview as part of their investigations. However, if you refuse to attend you could face further arrest. Our advice is to contact us immediately should the police get in touch about an interview.

No Further Action – this is when the police decide not to charge you with an offence. You will be released and no further action will be taken by them unless further evidence comes to light. Sometimes, the police may take no further action but fail to communicate this decision to you or the charge could simply become time barred from being raised. Drink driving carries a six month time limit and so if, for any reason, there are delays in the investigation that mean the six month anniversary of the alleged offence comes and goes without any action being taken, you could face no further action simply due to police inefficiency. This is fairly uncommon these days due to improvements in processes. Be warned though as some offences, such as dangerous driving, have no time limit and so whilst you may avoid a drink driving charge, it is still possible that you could face a dangerous driving charge if the evidence to prove dangerous driving is sufficient.

It is important to note that being arrested and charged with an offence is very different to being convicted of an offence by the Court.

If you have been arrested and/or charged but have not yet been convicted by a Court, you are generally not legally obligated to disclose this information to your employer unless there is a clause in your employment contract or employee handbook that would be breached by not doing so. We recommend that you double-check this in your contract of employment and HR handbook.

If there is no legal obligation for you to inform your employer of your arrest, then this is a matter for you to decide whether you should update them out of courtesy or for your own peace of mind. We recommend that you consider the following:

1. Are you likely to plead guilty to the offence. If so, will the conviction impact your ability to work?
2. Are you likely to defend the charge? If so a conviction may not materialise if you are found not guilty in which case you would not be required to inform your employer of anything, subject to specific terms of your contract.
3. Will anyone else inform your employer before you get a chance to?
4. Do you work in a profession that is regulated where the court will automatically inform your regulator of the allegation you face (e.g. Doctor)

If you think a subsequent conviction will affect your job then it may be desirable to inform your employer before being convicted and sentenced so as to reach an amicable solution. For example, if you currently need a driving licence to get to work or to carry out your work, you may want to discuss your options in advance with your employer so that measures can be put in place. Ultimately, it is a matter for you to decide, taking into account any legal obligation you may have.

If you have not been convicted, it is unlikely that your arrest will be disclosed on a basic DBS check.

In some circumstances the police would add ‘any other information’ of a ‘noteworthy’ arrest with no charge on your enhanced DBS record. This is likely to happen if you have been arrested on numerous occasions for similar offences. A one-off arrest is unlikely to be included but is at the discretion of the police.

If you have been convicted of drink driving, there may be further obligations for you to disclose this to your employer. It is likely, that your employer will require you to inform them of a criminal conviction. Again, you should check your contract of employment to confirm your obligations to them.

It is particularly important to review this carefully with regards to your job type or contract as some regulated professions such as doctors, nurses, teachers, accountants, solicitors, etc. may have further requirements or procedures under their relevant regulatory bodies to abide by.

You can read more about the stipulations for each profession on our website.

All unspent drink driving convictions will appear on a basic DBS check and your employer will be notified of the conviction if a check is carried out.

You can read more about whether your conviction is spent or unspent on our website.

All in all, it’s unlikely that you will need to disclose an initial arrest for suspected drink driving to your employer unless there is a clause in your employment contract that would be breached if not disclosed or you work within a regulated profession. That said, it might be beneficial to let your employer know if you’re unable to attend your work duties due to being arrested.

Our advice is to get in touch with us at the earliest stage so we can guide and support you through the legal minefield.