Rugby star’s 20-month ban after being twice the drink-drive limit
RUGBY LEAGUE player Zak Hardaker has been given a 20-month driving ban after performing an “amateurish attempt” to evade police officers while more than twice the drink-drive limit.
A court heard how the 26-yearold Wigan Warriors player had drunk “two gins and six pints” when officers spotted him driving erratically just after midnight on September 26, prompting him to pull into a cul-de-sac along Knottingley Road, in Pontefract.
Prosecutors told how Hardaker, who had been to a pub earlier in the evening, was seen to exit his Ford Fiesta via the driver’s side and, along with a passenger, run away from the police on foot.
Officers then attended the rugby league player’s nearby home in Pontefract, where he initially denied the vehicle was his or that he had been driving it at the time of the offence.
Prosecutors said that he gave a reading of 74 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath – the legal limit in England and Wales is 35microgrammes.
At Leeds Magistrates’ Court yesterday, Hardaker, who appeared on court lists under the name Zak Dakin, pleaded guilty to a single charge of drink driving.
He was fined £1,810 and banned from driving for 20 months by District Judge Paul Currer, who told him: “A vehicle is a dangerous piece of equipment that can cause untold damage.”
After hearing how Hardaker decided to drive the short distance home after realising his golf clubs were in the car, Mr Currer said: “You showed greater concern for your golf clubs then you did the safety of the public. You indulged in stupidity in asserting that you were not the driver and that it was not your car.”
Speaking about his client’s initial attempt to evade officers, Nick Hammond, defending, said: “He made what he has described as a grave error of judgment. He panicked.
“There was an amateurish attempt to avoid the attention of the police when they initially saw the vehicle.”
The full-back, who has previously played for Leeds Rhinos and Castleford Tigers, will not be eligible to play for Wigan, who he signed for in May, until a 14-month ban from rugby for cocaine use expires on November 8.