Player banned in May
PADDY Lacey was sacked by Stanley in May after the FA handed him a 14-month ban.
He had been suspended since the previous December after a metabolite of cocaine was found in a urine sample on November 22 last year.
At the FA’s Independent Regulatory Commission Hearing in May - a month before his arrest - Lacey’s representatives had argued that his use of the prohibited substance during a nine-hour drinking session with friends was not ‘intentional’ and there was no ‘significant fault’ on the behalf of the player.
The Commission agreed to a 14-month ban, down from a maximum available sanction of four years. Lacey had given evidence that over the previous four years he had been suffering from depression, without receiving professional help, and used alcohol and cocaine to ‘cope’.
The hearing report says he told the FA’s head of integrity that since the positive test result he had been “undertaking therapy to address his problems and was making progress.”
In issuing the lessened sanction, the Commission accepted that it was ‘cognitive impairment’ that had caused Lacey to breach the anti-doping rules and were satisfied that it was a case of ‘no significant fault or negligence’.
They also agreed not to order him to pay a fine or costs.