136kph Rio handed driving ban – despite claim that he needs to do the school run
RIO Ferdinand was yesterday banned from driving for six months after speeding despite pleas that he has to take his children to school.
The ex-Manchester United defender was caught doing 85mph (136kph) in his Mercedes near Hove, southeast England, in July last year.
He asked for leniency at Crawley Magistrates’ Court, arguing that his children could not take the bus to school due to the coronavirus pandemic, and that his ‘profile’ meant he would not put them in a taxi.
Ferdinand, 41, who now works as a pundit, said his children relied on him for transport following the death of his wife Rebecca in 2015 and his mother in 2017. But magistrate Geoffrey Allen rejected his pleas because Covid-19 affected ‘the whole world in the same way’. Ferdinand was also ordered to pay £822 (€912) in fines and costs.
The father-of-three, whose second wife Kate is expecting his fourth child, already had nine points for three offences, in 2017, 2018 and May last year. He was banned in 2012 after speeding on the same Manchester road three times in six weeks. He was also convicted of speeding in 2005, 2003 and 2002, and drink-driving in 1997.
Ferdinand had pleaded guilty to this latest offence at an earlier hearing but he applied for hardship circumstances so he could drive his children.
Sharon Allen, prosecuting, asked the footballer whether his wife could drive. Ferdinand said: ‘Yes but it is difficult with three children. The times are different when they have to be there.’
He was told that because his wife can drive and the virus has affected everyone in the same way, he will be banned from driving until February 2021.