Former soccer star is jailed in breath-test case

FORMER Liverpool soccer star 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.

The 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 Guilty: Saunders yesterday 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 that he had shown no remorse.

The soccer player 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.’

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’ explanation he was ‘confused’ at the police station and his claim that he thought he could wait for his lawyer before giving a sample.

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.