[ratter]

Originally Posted by GO FURTHER

Not related to the above case, but in terms of being in control of a vehicle, sitting in the driver's seat with the keys, I put the following scenario to my nephew, who is a Police officer in the Victorian Highway Patrol...

"If I had been drinking, got into my parked car outside my house with the car keys on my person, and went to sleep, then you drove past and noticed me in the car".

"You then pulled over (thinking it was suspicious), started to question me, noticed (alcohol on my breath) and gave me a breath test, which read that I was over the legal limit".

I then said to you, "I was sleeping it off in my parked car, having had a little to much to drink".

Now the question would be... "Would you charge me with being over the legal alcohol limit, in charge of a motor vehicle, and disregarding the fact that I was related to you".

Surprisingly, he said, "No".

He said, "A police officer has to also consider what is called 'intent' to evaluate if an offence has been committed".

He said, "In this case your 'intent' was not to drive the car, but instead to go to sleep". Since there was no intent to drive your car while intoxicated, I would not charge you". He said, it very much depends on "what your intent was to do next" in evaluating a possible offence or crime.

Although years ago, I worked with a guy that got done in a similar situation, he was asleep in the back if the car in the work car park, but had the car running to get some heat from the heater.
He lost his license for quite a while