Stoke winger Pennant avoids jail after pleading guilty to drink-driving

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UPDATED:

13:31 GMT, 15 May 2012

Jermaine Pennant has been given an eight-week suspended sentence and disqualified for driving for three years after pleading guilty to drink-driving, driving while disqualified, and driving without insurance.

The Stoke winger was more than twice the limit when he got behind the wheel of his BMW to drive back from Manchester in the early hours of April 29, Trafford Magistrates' Court heard earlier on Tuesday.

The 29-year-old was 'depressed and stressed' after months of turmoil in his private life and suffering taunts while in the nightclub, it was claimed.

In the dock: Jermaine Pennant (right) arrives at Trafford Magistrates' Court

JERMAINE PENNANT'S PAST

In February 2004, Pennant was given a sixteen-month ban from driving after being seen in the wrong lane in Paddington, West London.

In 2005, while on loan at Birmingham, the 22-year-old Arsenal midfielder crashed in the centre of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, at 6.20am.

His eyes were glazed and his speech slurred, and a breath test found he was almost two-and-a-half times the legal alcohol limit, the court heard.

He spent 30 days in jail for drink-driving and driving while still serving his previous ban. He initially told officers that he was his Arsenal team-mate Ashley Cole.

Two years later, the Liverpool player collapsed on a flight from Spain to Stansted following a 24-hour drinking binge.

In 2012, Pennant was charged with drink-driving, driving while disqualified and driving without insurance after his white BMW collided with a silver Audi in Sale.

He was also arrested after on suspicion of assaulting a woman in a nightclub but was later cleared.

Pennant had been playing football earlier that day and had arranged for his estranged partner and their 20-month-old child to come and see him perform but they did not turn up.

After suffering that blow, when he got home he found his new girlfriend had taken all her belongings and he received a text message telling him their relationship was over.

Depressed and home alone he accepted an invitation from friends to go to a nightclub in Manchester, the court heard.

But while there he became 'distressed' because of comments circulating about his former partner, his lawyer Mike Stephenson said in mitigation.

This 'broke the camel's back' and Pennant, unable to book a hotel room in central Manchester, decided to drive home.

He was arrested in the early hours of the morning after being involved in a minor road crash.

The defendant may have been speeding and gone through a red light, the court heard, but he was not prosecuted over the accident.

Pennant was breathalysed and gave a reading of 89mcg of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mcg.

Pennant had already been banned from driving earlier that month by JPs in Cannock, Staffordshire, for totting up too many points on his licence.

He admitted drink-driving, driving while disqualified, and driving without insurance.