EU citizen expelled after drunk driving with a blood alcohol level ...

Case no. 73/2021
Judgment delivered on 17 November 2021

The Prosecution Service
vs.
T

T, who was a Polish citizen, had been convicted of drunk driving for having driven a van with a blood alcohol level of 0.304%. The High Court handed down a suspended sentence of imprisonment for 20 days and an additional penalty, just as he was banned from driving for three years and expelled from Denmark with a four-year entry ban. The issue before the Supreme Court was mainly whether expelling T was in contravention of the EU Residence Directive.

T, who was 33 years old, started working in Denmark in June 2016 and registered as resident here in November 2018. He had no criminal record.

The Supreme held that T’s conduct constituted a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat affecting the fundamental interests of society, and that expulsion was in the interest of public order and security. It did not give importance to the facts that this was T’s first drunk driving offence and that T had explained that he was not addicted to alcohol in general.

The Supreme Court also ruled that expulsion with a four-year entry ban would not be in contravention of the proportionality principle.

The conditions for expelling him were thus met.

The High Court had reached the same conclusion.