Refusal to Submit Alcotest: Driver Convicted

10 years, 4 months ago - 11 December 2013, Le Mauricien
Refusal to Submit Alcotest: Driver Convicted
The magistrate Yashumatee Gopaul, sitting in Pamplemousses District Court, found Ali Coowar guilty of driving a vehicle with an alcohol concentration above the prescribed limit and refusing to submit to a breath test according to requests from the police. The accused had pleaded not guilty in court.

Event dates back to 11 September 2011. Corporal Rusdharry said he had stopped the car of the accused and when he told it could not answer him properly. The officer then noticed that the accused was under the influence of alcohol. Ali Coowar has been taken to the police station in Trou-aux-Biches. There, a team has been mended to perform a breath test on him but he refused. The officer said he warned Ali Coowar consequences of his refusal and was prevented from leaving the police station as one of his relatives would not take charge. 

PC Oogathoo, called as a witness , said that when he asked the accused if he was the driver during his arrest, he responded in the affirmative. He said he told the accused that if he refused to submit to a breathalyzer it would be translated into court for driving a vehicle under the influence of alcohol. The officer said the accused indicated that he would not make any tests, without giving reasons. 

Ali Coowar called in the dock, argued that the day he was taken to the police station, there he was never asked to submit to a breath test. He says he suffered from a headache and was imperative to get to Grand Baie for the job. It was not until arriving at Trou aux Biches job after he was arrested by two police officers, who asked him to accompany them to the station. He added that it was his nephew who came to fetch him at the police station because he could not drive because of his headache. 

In its judgment, the magistrate has referred to paragraph A of Article 123H (6) of the Road Traffic Act: " In a prosecution under section 123D or 123 F of this Act, a refusal without reasonable excuse by a person to submit himself to a breath test or to give a specimen of his blood or specimens of his urine when required to do so in pursuance of this section shall be held against him as prima facie evidence that at the material time the proportion of alcohol in his blood exceeded the prescribed limits. Paragraph (a) shall not apply where the person has not been warned by a police officer in accordance with subsection (5)" 

The magistrate Yashumatee Gopaul found that data in court by the officers were credible versions.So she found Ali guilty of Coowar driving under the influence of alcohol and refusing to submit to a breath test.

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