Drunk driving: is it possible to avoid confiscation of the car?

Basically, the rule is as essential as it is clear: if you do not want to be caught behind the wheel after a shot too many and risk getting your car confiscated for drunk driving, the best thing to do is not to drink alcohol. For all those who, however, who decide to challenge their luck because they are convinced that "I don't get drunk so much, because I can stand it", here is what awaits you.

The confiscation of the car: when does it start?

In the event of drunk driving, confiscation of the car is triggered when blood alcohol content greater than 1.5 grams per liter is found. If this happens, the arrest will be from six months to one year, a fine ranging from 1,500 to 6,000 euros, the suspension of the license from one to two years and - in the event of an accident or recidivism during the two years later by the motorist - the revocation of the license. To this must be added the confiscation of the vehicle if and only if it is partially or totally owned by the person who committed the crime.

But the concept of "ownership" of a vehicle is relative because it does not have to be understood in a technical sense, that is, who is the owner of public offices. Rather, as specified by the Court of Cassation, these are those who have "effective control over the vehicle, which can take the form of possession or possession provided that they are not occasional". In concrete terms, if a man buys a scooter, bearing it in his name, but it is only his wife who uses it, it is not to be considered his property, but his wife's. Furthermore, the possibility of confiscation of a car registered to a third party is excluded only if the owner is completely unrelated to the crime and in good faith. beckton cabs

Provided by the Court of Cassation, the confiscation of the car for drunk driving is a valid rule in the case of plea bargaining and criminal conviction. Unlike the administrative seizure, by virtue of which the ownership of the vehicle is not immediately lost by the driver, with the confiscation the vehicle is definitively stolen from the owner and will no longer be returned to him, passing into the hands of the State which will then put it to the auction. An appeal to the Prefect or the Justice of the Peace is allowed against confiscation.

Can the confiscation of the car be avoided? And how?

If you want to hope that the car will not be confiscated because you are found to be drunk driving with alcohol levels above 1.5 g / l, the first requirement is not to have caused an accident. If you have only "stumbled" on a routine check and nothing else, the second requirement can be taken into consideration, that is, dealing.

By law, in fact, it is possible to avoid confiscation of the car by converting the sentence established by the judge into socially useful work, that is, the fine and arrest. The conditions are as follows: 1 day of work at a public body, a voluntary association, a non-profit organization, etc. - obviously unpaid - corresponds to a 250 euro fine, while a month's work corresponds to a month of the arrest.

If the guilty person accepts these conditions, the confiscation of the car will also be eliminated. The effective and correct performance of the socially useful service will be ascertained by the Judge through a specific hearing set by the Court. At the end of the period in question, the crime of drunk driving will be declared extinct and the socially useful worker will be able to return - possibly sober - to driving his car. In full compliance with the principle of legality, the confiscation of the vehicle is not allowed if the driver in a state of intoxication is deemed not punishable due to the particular tenuity of the fact.

This is what emerges from the judgment of 19 February 2019, no. 7526 of the Fourth Criminal Section of the Court of Cassation.