Specialist road traffic law firm and Pinpoint user

A motorist suspected of drink driving has had charges of failing to provide a breath sample dropped in a case that could have implications for thousands of other drivers convicted of the offence.

Leon De Jager, a 31-year-old IT consultant from north London, was astonished when he was charged with failure to provide a sample after blowing into a breathalyser machine exactly as was told by police.

But the case was dropped after Driving Defences, a specialist road traffic law firm, proved that officers had incorrectly fitted a one-way valve into the breathalyser machine, making it impossible for the driver to provide a sample.

Martin Hammond, a principal at the firm, said the case meant thousands more drivers may have grounds for appealing against convictions.

"The problem lies in the mouthpiece," he said. "It is designed to allow air to pass in only one direction. But we have shown that with a breath testing machine used by many of country's police forces, the mouthpiece can easily be inserted into the device the wrong way.

"This means that no matter how hard they try, it's impossible for innocent motorists to provide a specimen. If they are charged with failure to provide a sample, drivers can face more serious consequences than drink driving itself.

"Thousands of motorists could have been wrongly convicted and they can now appeal."

A Home Office spokesman said: “Type approval of policing equipment such as alcohol breathalysers is a rigorous procedure designed to ensure that readings produced by a device are consistently reliable and accurate and so can be depended on for evidential purposes”.

A spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers said “no problems or concerns” had been raised about the mouthpiece generally, “but as with any piece of equipment of this nature, it is important it is used in accordance with the training provided”.

Extracted from an article which first appeared in the Daily Telegraph 25th July 2009.

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