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08 January 2009 | R v Mike Tindall | Back to News List

"MIKE TINDALL SENTENCED"

England rugby player Mike Tindall was today sentenced at Reading
Magistrates' Court for a second offence of drink driving.

The Gloucester Rugby Club star was stopped by police on the M4 near
Newbury, Berkshire, on March 15, last year.the morning after enjoying
a day out at the Cheltenham races with his girlfriend Zara Phillips. He
was later charged after recording a level of 91mg of alcohol in 100ml
of blood. The legal limit is 80mg.

Through expert reports his Solicitor, Richard Mallett, was able to establish
that Tindal suffered from an abnormally low alcohol elimination rate which
meant that it took him more than twice as long to eliminate alcohol from
his body than the average person. The consequences of such a condition
is that had Tindall not been one of 2% of the population to process the
alcohol at such a low rate he would have been significantly below the legal
drink drive limit when he was stopped by the police.

Although Reading Magistrates accepted that Tindall was unaware of this
medical condition and therefore could not have known he would have been
over the legal limit under long standing case law the court had no option
but to ban Tindall for the miminum period of three years. In addition Tindall
was fined £500 and ordered to pay £75 costs.

Speaking after the court case, Mr Mallett explained:

"Mr Tindall followed the generally accepted rule that alcohol is eliminated
at approximately one unit an hour but unbeknown to him his body processed
alcohol at a much slower rate. This was accepted by the crown and the
court. It was accepted further that Tindall only exceeded the drink driving
limit on the basis that his elimination rate for alcohol was much lower than
the average person, unfortunately despite this the Court had no option
under existing case law but to disqualify him from driving.

Richard Mallett went on to say:

"The situation is extraordinary, Tindall is one of 2% of the population who,
incredibly, are likely to never find out that they have a low elimination rate
until or unless they are stopped for a drink driving offence, but by this time
it will be too late and through no fault of their own they will be found guilty
of drink driving."

Tindall stated further: "I have learnt that what you perceive to be a safe
time to wait before one drives after drinking, particularly the following
morning, can be totally wrong and I apologise for this. As the court accepted
I was wholly unaware that my alcohol elimination rate is in the lowest 2%
of the population and, had that rate been normal, I would have been
substantially under the limit.

"I now understand there is no such thing as a normal alcohol elimination
rate as everyone is different. Therefore everybody must be very careful
to ensure that they leave a very substantial gap between any drinking of
alcohol and any later driving.

I feel strongly that people need to be educated about this as I have been."

08 January 2009

R v Mike Tindall

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