“L.l.a Having Open Liquor In Motor Vehicle Driver Charged”

Hi, first time posting here.

I was charged in January with driving a car having an open beer bottle in it under the Liquor Licensing Act and also with a having a burnt out license plate light.

I was driving home with 4 other guys in my vehicle from doing a moving job late on a Friday night in December to drop off on of the fellows on a local road in Scarborough.

Sure enough unknown to me one of the passenger in the front seat unknown to me was drinking a pilfered beer from our customer hiding it down low between his legs and I didn't notice it until I spotted Toronto's finest making a u turn to go after someone ahead of me.

Unfortunately I surmised that we were bigger fish and had a feeling we would be pulled over since the guys in the back don't like to put on their sea t belts even though I tell them too all the time.

Sure enough I change lanes to see if they are on my tail and they follow so I know we are going to get pulled over.

As I come to the stoplight the idiot front set passenger rolls the window down and throws his bottle out the window, the cruiser behind immediately lights up and an officer comes racing on foot to retrieve the broken bottle.

The one officer asks me for papers, etc and tells me that he has a body camera and that everything is now being recorded.

The other officer orders all of us out of car onto sidewalk and searches all of us and the car , of course asks if I the driver have been drinking.

I say no which is the truth and upon finding nothing else ushers us back into the car while the officer writes up the tickets.

He gives me 2 fines, one for $ 215.00 having open liquor under the L.L.A act and the other under H.T.A. act for having a busted license lamp for $ 95.00.

The goof ball that got me into this gets the lower open liquor fine of $ 125.00 and a verbal tongue lashing for having broken glass bottle lying on the sidewalk that some dog or kid could get cut on and that he could have charge the lot of us with not wearing seat belts.

I have already requested a trial on both charges , as I always do, and plead not guilty.

So my question is does the open liquor charge go on my drivers record that the insurance companies can find ?

If not , I am thinking I should plea bargain and ask for the broken light to be dropped, say I have fixed it and give them a receipt showing I bought the bulb with a night photo showing it, and plead guilty to the open liquor offense with reduced fine if I can get away with it plus time to pay.

My main thing with this is keeping this off my drivers record so the insurance companies don't find it.

And should I ask for disclosure for both tickets to up my bargaining chip when I plea ( in case disclosure doesn't come thru ) to get the H.T.A. ticket dropped or is that just inflaming the situation ?

Not sure which way to go on this as I just recently went to fight a parking ticket at at the Edward Street courthouse and ran into a very stubborn JP and prosecutor who claimed that they don't lower fines anymore and the set fine is it with extra time to pay, unless you have special circumstances.

Usually I have gotten these reduced but it seems they are after the money big time and I am wondering if the same thing is going on now in the P.O.A and the H.T.A. offenses.

If you have any advice I would appreciate it, thanks.

Charges under the LLA don't appear on your drivers abstract.