Matter: Driving Offence
Parties Involved:
Magistrates Court of SA
Decision:
Reduced Penalty and Ordered for Good Behaviour Bond
Brief Description:
Our client was disqualified from acquiring a driver’s licence / driving yet drove a motor vehicle. He was charged and bailed by the police without plea.
The client had several traffic offenses before and was caught driving the first time while being disqualified. We notified the client of possible outcomes as a result of his actions including six-month imprisonment for first-time offenders. Bearing witness due to the fact the prosecution has all of the elements against the client, we advised him to plead guilty. With high chances of being sentenced to imprisonment we laid out contingency action for the client through obtaining suspended sentence under section 38 of the Criminal Law (Sentencing) Act 1988, whereby a defendant can be suspended from the sentence for good reasons and provided that the client enters a Good Behaviour bond.
We applied for Prosecution to consider minimising the penalty and to allow our client to drive for work purposes when disqualification ends. The client had disability which made the case rigorous. This entailed us to obtain supporting documents from the client’s employers. He is now under Probationary License.
Our client was granted for sentence suspension after arguing the strong points our client has:
- (a) he immediately plead guilty,
- (b) his underlying mental processing condition,
- (c) him being a full-time worker and tax contributor to the government,
- (d) no other convictions apart from driving matter, and
- (e) good relationship with friends, families, and colleagues.
