Boyfriend sleeping in car charged for driving with no insurance

My boyfriend is a disqualified driver and has several driving offences against him. He has never had a full licence. A few nights ago he and his friend ( of which both have keys) took my car. They had a disagreement whilst parked at a filling station and the friend who is insured to drive any car walked off leaving my boyfriend in the car. The police came a little time later and found him asleep in the drivers seat, without the keys in the engine. They arrested him on suspicion of drink driving although they later found he hadn't and so they have charged him with driving whilst disqualified and no insurance. I had told the police initially that my car had been taken, I did not know what had happened at this point. I will be contacting the Police with full details but wanted some advice first. I would appreciate a reply just to inform me of both my boyfriend and my rights with this regard.

The police probably initially arrested your boyfriend with a view to bringing a "drunk in charge" case which might have succeeded had he been drunk, in the driver's seat with the keys in his possession (whether in the ignition or not).

The laws on disqualified drivers and insurance are not applied so widely and if he did not drive the car on the public highway while uninsured then he has a good defence. Assuming the car was insured (by you) to be on the road and the friend was insured to drive the vehicle on his own insurance then it would appear from what you say that no offence was committed, provided you do not allege the car was taken without your permission.

However if there are witnesses to him driving the car or if he was picked up entering from the highway driving the car on to the filling station forecourt by closed circuit television then he will obviously have a problem.

Given his past driving record and as he has been charged he may well benefit from detailed legal advice and in the first instance I would suggest you should agree to a detailed exploratory interview with a specialist motoring offence solicitor.

The Roadside Lawyer will initially provide expert motoring solicitor support to road traffic offence clients at a one off charge of £25 plus VAT for a detailed half hour telephone consultation. The solicitor will have been briefed and read about the background to your case. After the consultation they will provide email notes and guidance detailing how you should best proceed.

If appropriate they may then recommend further work to negotiate with the the CPS that the case is dropped, or at least there are reasonable grounds for mitigation to ensure a minimal penalty.

If you instruct us to further act for you, any additional charges will be notified before you incur them so you can take an informed decision on how much further expenditure you wish to incur. If you choose to let us represent you (usually with junior counsel) the initial call cost will be waived.

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