Jailed ex-Villa striker is freed after a day
FORMER Aston Villa striker and Wolves boss Dean Saunders was hit with a 10-week prison sentence for failing to provide a breath specimen after being arrested on suspicion of drink-driving.
But the 55-year-old served just one day behind bars after his lawyers lodged an appeal.
Saunders looked distraught at Chester Magistrates’ Court when he realised he was going to jail as prison officers entered the dock.
Police who arrested him said Saunders was slurring his speech and had to prop himself up against his Audi A8 car when he was asked to get out.
Saunders said he had been at Chester Races and had drunk two pints. His lawyer said this may have “interacted” with medication he takes for injury to his knees and his inhaler for his asthma. He refused to give a roadside breath test and again failed to provide a breath sample at a police station.
He pleaded not guilty at an earlier hearing but later admitted failing to comply with a roadside breath test and failing to provide a breath sample for analysis in Boughton, Chester, on May 10 this year.
As well as the prison sentence, Saunders was banned from driving for 30 months and ordered to pay court costs of £620.
District Judge Nicholas Sanders told him: “Throughout these proceedings you have shown yourself to be arrogant, thinking you are someone whose previous and current role in the public eye entitles you to be above the law.
“In fact the opposite is true – someone in the public eye should expect a deterrent sentence when they flout the law.” He also told the father of three that, despite police bodycam footage and “overwhelming evidence”, he had shown “no real remorse”.
Lawyers for Saunders, who was capped by Wales 75 times, said the sentence was “excessive” and they launched an appeal to a more senior judge sitting at Chester Crown Court. Saunders was granted unconditional bail until a hearing on October 4.