Chelsea footballer given 20-month road ban over drink-driving

Chelsea footballer Danny Drinkwater has been banned from the roads after ploughing his £125,000 Range Rover through a wall while twice the legal drink drive limit.

Drinkwater, 29, who had two female passengers in his car, caused £50,000 worth of damage to the vehicle and suffered a grazed forehead, Stockport Magistrates’ Court heard.

He pleaded guilty to drink driving during a brief appearance in the dock, before he was banned from the roads for 20 months and ordered to do 70 hours of community service.

He was also given a 12-month community order and ordered to pay £85 prosecution costs and an £85 victim surcharge.

Subi Chowdhury, prosecuting, told the court Drinkwater himself called emergency services after the crash at about 12.30am on April 8.

His car had gone through a wall on Ashley Road, Mere, near to Tatton Park, a country house in Cheshire.

Paramedics and police arrived and Drinkwater admitted to officers he had been drinking.

His road-side test proved positive and he was taken to Middlewich Police station.

There he gave a reading of 87 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, with the legal limit being 35 microgrammes.

Drinkwater was then put in the cells, the court heard, and charged with drink driving.