Second offence in less than three years

In August 2015, Darron Gibson was charged with driving without due care and attention, driving with excess alcohol and failing to stop after a road traffic collision in Altrincham, Greater Manchester.

A month later, in September 2015, he admitted drink driving, careless driving and failing to stop at the scene of

was strewn with debris.

The taxi driver had followed him thinking that Gibson would stop to swap details, but the footballer — who also played for Manchester United and Everton — carried on for some distance until the final series of collisions.

Chairman of the bench David Randall said there was a suspicion the footballer had come off the main road and was using a back road through an estate after the initial collision.

The magistrate said the offence was aggravated by the an accident and was sentenced to a 12-month community order and banned from driving for 20 months. On March 17 this year, Gibson was arrested on suspicion of driving over the limit after smashing his Mercedes 4x4 into parked cars as he drove to his club’s training ground in Sunderland. His contract was later terminated.

length of time over which it occurred and the footballer’s failure to stop or report the damage which was caused to the taxi.

He said: “Mr Gibson, this is the second offence in less than three years.”

Aggravating factors included the damaged caused to the parked vehicles. Speaking about sentencing, Mr Randall said: “We feel this aggravates it into the custody band.”

Gibson will be sentenced on May 25 after medical reports are provided. Sunderland terminated his contract after he