Alcohol Abstinence and Monitoring Requirement - UPDATE

A short while ago we reported on Alcohol Abstinence and Monitoring Requirements. These are requirements that can be attached to Community Orders and Suspended Sentence Orders and require the person subject to them to abstain from consuming alcohol for a period of up to 120 days.

Alcohol Abstinence and Monitoring Requirements have now been rolled out across the country and can be imposed by any court making a Community Order or Suspended Sentence Order providing the Secretary of State has notified the court that facilities exist in their area to implement the requirement.

Before a court can impose the requirement it must be satisfied that the following four conditions are met:

1. Consumption of alcohol by the offender is an element of the offence before the court OR consumption of alcohol by the offender was a factor that contributed to the commission of the offence.
2. The defendant must not be dependent upon alcohol.
3. If the court imposes an alcohol treatment requirement it must not impose an Alcohol Abstinence and Monitoring Requirement as well.
4. The court has been notified by the Secretary of State that arrangements for monitoring of the kind to be specified are available in the local justice area.

If you are facing the imposition of an Alcohol Abstinence and Monitoring Requirement you should be aware that it is monitored by an ankle tag that you cannot remove and will require you to be at home twice a day for the tag to upload the information it collects to the monitoring company. This will mean that the requirement is unsuitable for anybody who plans to work or spend time away from home during the period of the requirement. In effect, the requirement will mean that you are unable to take holidays or travel away from home for more than a few hours per day without breaching the Order imposed upon you.

Therefore, it is important that any issues like this are raised with the court before the requirement is imposed.

If you are facing court and would like advice on this or any other aspect of motoring law then do not hesitate to contact Nick Diable at London Drink Driving Solicitor on 020 8242 4440.