Dangerous Driving Offence - Case Dropped

Case study summary

Our client was charged with a driving offence which he did not commit. We worked quickly to show the prosecution that this was a case of mistaken identity by obtaining a signed statement from the actual perpetrator of the offence. This resulted in the case being dropped.

Case study

Our client was involved in an incident whereby he was in a van that was pulled over by the police for dangerous driving. The van, after initially failing to stop, came to a halt and everyone in the van fled the scene. Our client was caught by the officers and was believed to the driver. The officers formed this assumption as our client had exited the van via the drivers door. Because of this, our client was charged with dangerous driving, drunk driving, and failing to stop. The police's assumption led to the charging decision which was in fact wrong.

We obtained instructions from our client who confirmed that he was not the driver. In actual fact it was our client's friend who was driving the vehicle that evening and our goal was to get this case dropped as soon as possible. The effects of our client being wrongly convicted for this offence would have been devastating for him.

We obtained a statement from the driver who admitted to driving the vehicle. Because of our efforts to collect the statement and ensure that the prosecution considered this, we were able to get the case dropped. This came as a relief to our client who relies on having his driving licence in order to be able to work.