Gazza avoids jail for drink-driving
- 13 years ago
Former England footballer Paul Gascoigne has avoided jail despite being caught driving while more than four times the legal alcohol limit.
The 43-year-old was given an eight-week sentence, suspended for a year, when he appeared at Newcastle Magistrates' Court.
He was also banned from driving for three years and given an alcohol treatment order.
Gazza was arrested in the city's Jesmond suburb on Friday 8th October, when officers spotted him driving an MG erratically.
He was found to have 142mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The limit is 35mg.
The former Newcastle, Tottenham, Lazio, Rangers, Middlesbrough and Everton midfielder admitted drink-driving at a hearing in October and was warned then that he could be jailed for up to 12 weeks.
He was due to be sentenced last month but failed to appear as he had checked himself into a rehab clinic on the south coast.
A separate drink-drive charge, which Gascoigne denies, will be heard next week at Northerallerton Magistrates' Court.