Former Liverpool star jailed in breath test case
FORMER footballer Dean Saunders was branded ‘arrogant’ yesterday by a judge who jailed him for suspected drink driving. The 55-year-old former Wales international had been at Chester races before his Audi A8 was spotted weaving across the road by police. When he was pulled over, the former Liverpool striker and TV pundit was slurring his speech and seemed unsteady on his feet, a court heard yesterday. Saunders, a father-of three, was asked to provide a breath test. But he was arrested after refusing to blow hard enough into the breathalyser on the roadside. He refused again to give a breath test at a nearby police station.
At an earlier hearing, Saunders claimed his asthma had prevented him from blowing hard enough to provide a specimen.
He initially denied two charges of failing to co- operate with a roadside breath test and to provide a specimen, but changed his plea ahead of the trial yesterday.
But District Judge Nicholas Sanders told Saunders, dressed in jeans, a navy waistcoat and jacket, that he had shown no remorse.
The footballer appeared stunned as the judge jailed him for ten weeks and banned him from driving for 30 months. ‘You have shown yourself to be arrogant, thinking you are someone whose previous and current roles in the public eye entitle you to be above the law,’ the judge said.
‘In fact, the opposite is true. Someone in the public eye should set an example and expect a deterrent sentence when they deliberately flout the law.’
The judge said police, who caught Saunders’s behaviour on body cameras, were so concerned about his driving along the A51 Tarvin Road towards his home, near Winsford, Cheshire, that they feared he would cause a serious accident.
Saunders was ‘obstructive and evasive’ when asked to give a breath test, the judge said, later claiming he had drunk just three pints all day and blaming his slurring on medication.
The judge said he did not accept Saunders’s explanation he was ‘confused’ at the police station and thought he could wait for his lawyer before giving a sample.
Chester magistrates’ court heard two officers followed Saunders after spotting his Audi speeding at around 12.45am on May 10.
Clare Bate, prosecuting, said: ‘The vehicle almost hit a kerb and had to swerve to avoid hitting another vehicle.’
Matt Harvey, of Mersey Cheshire Crown Prosecution Service, said: ‘He is now behind bars and has only himself to blame.’
After the hearing Conor Johnstone, defending, said his client was shocked by the sentence and would appeal.
Saunders will serve half his term, probably at HMP Altcourse, in Liverpool, and was ordered to pay £620 costs.
‘Obstructive and evasive’